翻译This Bergen County suburb is among the safest in the nation, a survey says.There are always a bevy of factors to consider when uprooting your life to move to another town: Can I afford it? How are the nightlife and restaurants? Will I be able to make new friends?

The checklist may seem never-ending, but at the top is arguably one of the most important: Safety.

It may or may not have been a secret that Edgewater, a borough overlooking the Hudson River and Manhattan skyline, has seen population numbers jump 26% in the last decade, according to U.S. census data, but it is also considered one of the safest places to live in the U.S.

The Bergen County borough cracked the top 10 list of safest suburbs of major U.S. cities in SmartAsset's 2024 survey, which took into consideration 360 places within a 15- to 45-minute drive to 100 of the largest U.S. cities. The suburb must also have a population over 5,000.

The financial advice website then analyzed those suburbs on several safety-metrics: violent crime rates, property crime rates, vehicular mortality rates, drug poisoning mortality rates and the percentage of the population engaging in excessive drinking. SmartAsset then measured monthly housing costs and median household incomes among the top 35 to come to its conclusions.

Edgewater, which features 3.5 miles of waterfront just a short ferry, bus or train ride from New York City, ranked 10th on the list. Its median monthly housing cost is $2,730, with a median annual household income of $136,806, SmartAsset said. But it was Edgewater's low crime rates that made the borough stand out.

How do Edgewater's crime rates compare with the rest of NJ?The borough reported eight violent crimes in 2022, according to the FBI Crime Data Explorer, which was used by SmartAsset to reach its findings. The website measured the data per capita, which takes into account population numbers across the board. That breaks down to 0.00118 violent crimes per 100,000 people, SmartAsset reported.Property crimes reported were 0.01480 per 100,000 residents in Edgewater, SmartAsset said.

Edgewater's numbers are starkly different from the nation's, data compiled by the government shows: In 2022, the FBI reported across the U.S. 380.7 violent crimes per 100,000 people and a total 1,954.4 property crimes per 100,000. In New Jersey, there were 202.9 violent crimes per 100,000 people and 1,416.7 property crimes per 100,000 people.

Drug overdose, motor vehicle rates in Edgewater
Edgewater had 4.36 motor vehicle crash deaths per 100,000 residents, SmartAsset said. The suburb on the list with the highest number of motor vehicle crash deaths was Lumberton, North Carolina, with 39.5 per 100,000 residents, the data shows.

The study also noted that Edgewater had a lower number of drug overdose deaths — 19 per 100,000 residents. Adults who excessively drank alcohol in the borough totaled roughly 16%, the data showed.

Safest NJ suburbs
Three other suburbs in New Jersey were among those meeting the criteria, with two in North Jersey and another in South Jersey. The least safe suburb is ranked 360, with safety increasing as the rankings drop in number:

#17: Fort Lee (Bergen County)
#34: Hoboken (Hudson County)
#291: Williamstown (unincorporated community in Monroe Township in Gloucester County)
In 2022, the population of Edgewater was 14,394, compared with just over 11,400 in 2012. The borough has seen a large population increase of people between the ages of 25 and 34 since 2012, according to U.S. census data.