“Maine” and “safe” are, at least to me, synonymous. Regardless of the shenanigans that go on around here, you can’t deny that we are fortunate to live in a fairly sheltered place. A study done by WalletHub upholds this conviction.

The personal finance website ranked 182 cities in America based on safety across 44 metrics, including assaults per capita, unemployment rates, road quality, financial safety, uninsured rates, fraud complaints, and mass shootings, just to name a few. You can see the full list and methodology here.

(Okay, but I'm surprised we made it high on the list if they put "road quality" as an indicator...)

Portland, Maine was ranked as #6 out of 182 cities with a score of 82.98, not far off from the #1 safest city of Columbia, Maryland that has a score of 87.83 (on a scale of 0-100, with 100 representing the highest level of safety).

The data was collected from reliable sources like the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics, so this wasn’t just a few guys throwing together a list of places that they perceive as safe - this is the real deal.

Other New England cities that made the cut high on the list were South Burlington, VT (#2); Nashua, NH (#3); Burlington, VT (#9); Manchester, NH (#11); and Worcester, MA (#18). Another Maine shoutout was Lewiston ranked at #42 and our neighbor Boston, MA came in at #54.

Does this mean you should hit the streets at 1 a.m. alone with your guard down? Absolutely not. But, this study does give us Portlanders some bragging rights.

LOOK: Full List of the Best Places to Live in Maine

Stacker compiled a list of the best places to live in Maine using data from Niche. Niche ranks places to live based on a variety of factors including cost of living, schools, health care, recreation, and weather. Cities, suburbs, and towns were included. Listings and images are from realtor.com. On the list, there's a robust mix of offerings from great schools and nightlife to high walkability and public parks.

Some areas have enjoyed rapid growth thanks to new businesses moving to the area, while others offer glimpses into area history with well-preserved architecture and museums. Keep reading to see if your hometown made the list.

READ ON: See the States Where People Live the Longest

Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.

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