10 Safest Places to Live in Arizona Right Now 2026

If you're looking for the safest places to live in Arizona, including affordability, quality of life in the desert, communities near Phoenix and Tucson with overall low crime rates, good weather, and fair cost of living, then this video is for you. First up, we're headed up to Flagstaff. We're up here at 7,500 feet elevation. It's a lot cooler up here in Arizona's high country than it is in the valley areas, but Flagstaff is generally considered one of the safer big cities in Arizona overall. Population of Flagstaff is about 80,000 people, but if you extend to the metro area, it's around 140,000. It does have a low overall violent crime rate compared to Phoenix or Tucson. The one thing that they do struggle with a bit is petty theft, break-ins do happen, some bike theft, stuff like that, but overall Flagstaff is considered fairly safe by Arizona standards and including national standards. So if you're looking for a little bit cooler temperatures and don't mind the higher elevation, then Flagstaff may work out just perfect for you. Now, there is a university here called Northern Arizona University. Those are the lumberjacks. They have some wild animals out here that are a bit different than the desert. You won't find as many snakes, but you will see bears, some elk, deer, those kinds of animals, maybe even a puma or a bobcat up here in the high country. But overall, it's a beautiful place out here, usually considered a safe place to walk around your neighborhood in places like Forest Highlands or the Country Club area. You have Ponderosa Trails, so many different places for people to hang out. They also have a lot of outdoor activities going up to the top of the mountain at Humphreys Peak or the San Francisco Peak area, but some of the areas you may want to avoid are downtown Flagstaff, around the student housing in the NAU area, or maybe even the motel corridors along Route 66. It can get a bit feisty around there. Also, Pine Knoll is known as a higher property crime area. Now, from Flagstaff, we're headed about 45 minutes south along 89A. This here is Sedona, Red Rock Country, also a safe place with low violent crime rates. A little bit of property theft, but nothing too big to write home about, but Sedona is going to rank right up there as a very peaceful, tranquil place to live. Population of Sedona is real small. It's around 10,000 residents. Most people up here are doing hiking and wellness stuff. Also, retirees come here. It's kind of locked down as far as zoning goes, so you can't really get too much chaos going on in Sedona, just because it's a really protected, beautiful area mostly. People here are focused on outdoor recreation, art, and just really living a healthy lifestyle, so that's why it's relatively safe. You can walk during the daytime in most parts of the city, and it's safer than most large U.S. towns or cities, if you want to call it that. In fact, the median age around Sedona is about 60 years old, so it's got a large retiree population. Retirees aren't usually out there trying to commit crimes, are they? Now, one thing I will say, you do get what you pay for. Sedona is one of the most expensive places to live in all of the state, so be ready to open up the wallet if you're trying to move up here. Even if you're trying to live in an apartment, it can be a bit higher than you're going to find around Phoenix or Prescott, Flagstaff. It's just because people pay premium prices to live in a paradise kind of setting like this. I mean, it's a high desert, red rocks, so beautiful and tranquil, isn't it? Some of the safest areas in Sedona are going to include West Sedona, Oak Creek Village, Chapel area around that beautiful chapel up on that hill, and then the Sedona Golf Resort communities are always safe. Some of the biggest dangers here in Sedona, dehydration while hiking, flash floods, those can happen. Going out there and getting heat exhaustion in the summertime, or maybe even mountain driving accidents, that kind of stuff is a little bit dangerous in Sedona, and just be careful of the wildlife, you never know. What could be out there lurking in the desert or the forest? Typically it would be a bobcat or a mountain lion, although I will say wild animal attacks in Arizona are very rare. The one you do have to worry about a little bit would be a rattlesnake. Those are rare as well, but if you ever got bit by a rattlesnake, they say the anti-venom itself is around $100,000 per vial. And I have hiked all around Arizona. I would say if you stick to the trail, you're generally going to be safe. You can usually see what's out there under those rocks or slithering across the trail, whereas if you're walking out in the desert, you know, you never know what's creeping and crawling around there. And staying out here on 89A, we're going to cross the Mingus Mountain Range here, and we're headed over to Prescott. Now the population out here, if you include Prescott Valley, Chino Valley, and some of the surrounding areas as well as Prescott, it's over 100,000 people. It is considered one of the most safe places in Arizona, again, and its safety ranks well above the national averages. It is called everybody's hometown or Arizona's Christmas City, but it's also home to the world's oldest rodeo. And like I said, it's generally safer than Phoenix and Tucson, lower crime rate than the national average. It's popular with retirees and families. It's a great place to raise a family, I'd say. It's not quite as cold as Flagstaff, not quite as hot as Phoenix. It's around 5,000 feet elevation out here. It's kind of where the pine trees begin, that's the best way I would put it, but really an amazing place out here. Lots of outdoor recreation. They got a big old YMCA camp for the kids out here. Lots of lakes, rivers, and streams. They also have a college up here called Yavapai College. Some of you may be interested in going to school up here, but mostly the elderly are retiring here. As you're noticing a trend here, wherever you're in the northern Arizona communities where there's retirees, those populations and those regions are just generally safer in Arizona. So that's something to just keep in the back of your mind as someone who's trying to settle down and find peace and relaxation. Seems like that's the peaceful areas. But I just want to say Prescott, Flagstaff, Sedona, these are some of the more expensive areas in Arizona. It's not quite as expensive as Scottsdale or Paradise Valley, but it's up there. Now we're actually headed down to the Valley of Phoenix. We're out here in far east Phoenix metro. This is Fountain Hill with a metro population around 25,000 people and the average age around here is 57 to 60. Big old fountain, used to be one of the tallest in the world, still is one of the tallest in the world, but it's not quite as tall as some of the other fountains. But every so often about once an hour that fountain goes off during the daytime and you can see the big old fountain just shooting through the sky. It's a really cool place. You can also watch fireworks out here if you just want to check out Fountain Hills, but real peaceful living out here. It's a bit out in the desert on the other side of the McDowell Mountains from Scottsdale. It is one of the safer communities in the Phoenix metro area. It's a bit quieter than Glendale, Mesa, Phoenix or even Gilbert, popular with retirees and seasonal residents. So we got a lot of snowbirds out here in Fountain Hills and the people who live out here, they like to play golf, do hiking, trek around the desert, check out desert views. I mean getting a home with a nice view overlooking the Verde River from here out towards the Fort McDowell is also a nice thing to do. You get plenty of retirement communities and that's why you got a lot of golf out in Arizona to begin with. But the big thing you have to watch out for is package theft. So people like to go take those Amazon packages right off your doorstep, some vehicle break-ins. Also scams targeting retirees. I mean there's people out there who think it's okay to scam or you know try to deceive the elderly. That's just not cool now is it? Also people do tend to drink and drive out here. That's another thing you got to watch out for especially on the highways or the roads late at night. And around Fountain Hills they do get some wildfires. That's common in Arizona but Fountain Hills has had some big old raging wildfires over the years. Seems like once every five or ten years they get a big one out here. But generally speaking it's the good life out here in Fountain Hills. Not too much going on and I think that's what makes it so safe. I mean you're not going to expect any nightlife or clubs or parties out in Fountain Hills but if you're looking to live with the family or retire in a nice place nearby the big city of Phoenix, Fountain Hills is your place. Now we're actually headed over to Paradise Valley. This is the most expensive zip code in all the state of Arizona with a population of about 12,000 to 14,000 residents. Average median age out here is 55 years or older. Obviously these are going to be a little bit more wealthy well-to-do people because they've got the ultra luxury real estate. Plenty of golf resorts around here. Mountain real estate right there on the mountain. Camelback right there. It's like a valley of course but you can even see some celebrities around here. Executive residents and beautiful views of that Camelback Mountain especially in the morning or at sunset. This area really does become a paradise valley. I wish I could show you some pictures of what it looked like maybe 50 to 60 years ago. You'd just be astonished at how beautiful this place was and you could see why people gravitated here. But nowadays it's considered one of the safest upscale communities in all of Arizona. Significantly safer than the nearby Phoenix area. I mean it's just a world apart even though downtown Phoenix can be seen from out here in Paradise Valley. You're looking down on the valley and it's just so much safer. Violent crime is low. Also safer than Scottsdale. Limited nightlife out here. The thing you do have to be on the lookout for is going to be that property crime. Some people come up here just to target the wealthy although they have lots of gated communities around here. Also package theft, burglary, sometimes some vehicle break-ins, frauds and scams. Popular unfortunately but still just an absolutely beautiful place. Like I said I mean it's the highest rent district in all of Arizona. What do you expect out here? And from Paradise Valley here in the middle of Phoenix we're actually headed out to the southeastern valley. This is Gilbert. Gilbert's known as one of the newer cities. It used to be a big old farming community back about 40 years ago but it's transformed into modern homes. They got a lot of those trek home communities out here. They've built a downtown area around downtown Gilbert also known as DTG. They've got bars and pubs, plenty of restaurants down there. It's still small by most downtown standards but it's you know it's developing and emerging. But Gilbert really does stand out as one of those places that seems to be top ranking in the entire country. I mean if you're looking at top 50 places in the country year over year, Gilbert's up there as one of the top places in Arizona on that list. The population out here is around 300,000 people so it's really a big suburb out here in southeast Phoenix next to Mesa and Chandler. By the way Mesa is actually the largest suburb in the country. The average age in Gilbert is around the late 30s so this is a family-friendly place. I would say out of all the places to consider moving to Arizona if you're looking to raise a family in a relatively safe big city, I mean if you're looking at per capita crime and all that and you don't want to be living in a retirement community, you want to be in a place where there's other families and it's family-friendly, Gilbert is one of those safe places. Now we're headed out to the west side. This year is surprise so if you're wondering, surprise surprise, a west side Phoenix safe place. Yep, that's right. With a population of about 170,000 people, there's lots of retirees out here. It's nearby Sun City of course but you have families, remote workers. They've also got the spring training facilities bringing in the visitors with all that but it's one of the safest large cities in Arizona. A lot of people underestimate surprise because it's on the west side but when they find out it's among the top safest cities in Arizona with the price being right where it's at, I mean you're going to get some good value out here if you're looking for a big house or maybe an apartment. This area right here is at the base of the foothills of the White Tank Mountains. I mean it's a bit dry and arid out here in the summertime but very mild climate in the winter. I would say about eight months out of the year this is a nice place to be as with most places in the Phoenix metro area from about middle of May until middle of September. Boy oh boy is it hot hot hot in Arizona. We're actually entering right into the peak season for the heat right now as we're heading into middle of May right now as I'm making this. Thankfully violent crime is low out here. Property crime rates are about average for the country but it's got a very suburban type feeling. Clean and modern. Lots of construction always taking place out here. They got newer master plan neighborhoods. It's a bit quieter than the Phoenix area but you got to have a car out here. That's the thing with most of these places on this list. Arizona is very dependent on cars. Not much public transportation and in a place like Surprise, a suburb anywhere in Phoenix, you're really going to need to have a car. But out here they've got wide roads, golf communities, retirement communities, new shopping centers. The Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals play spring training baseball out here. That could be a perk. Now we're headed down to Tucson area. This here is Sarita with a population of about 40,000 people. It's located in Pima County just south of Tucson. It's a fast growing suburb known for good life for families. Some retirees are out here as well. Remote workers. People wanting more of a quieter lifestyle in Tucson. I personally like being around the Catalina foothills. We'll talk about another place at the very end of this video but Sarita is a great place to be. Very beautiful. You're closer to Mount Wrightson or Madera Canyon and it's a little bit cooler than most of the suburbs in Phoenix just because Tucson's actually at a higher elevation. You could almost say in the summertime Tucson's about three to five degrees cooler than most of Phoenix. Sometimes seven degrees depending on what part of Tucson you're in. But down here you don't have to worry too much about violent crime. A little bit of property theft does happen but it's got that quiet suburban feel with newer neighborhoods. Less traffic than you'll find in inner Tucson or inner Phoenix but still got that scenic desert mountain views. I would say Tucson as a whole just grows a little bit slower than Phoenix. You don't see as much construction. You still see some but not as much as you get in metro Phoenix. And as we continue to show you around Arizona I want to let you know that we make a lot of videos about Arizona. So if you're someone who's thinking about moving to Arizona or you already live in Arizona and you want to stay up to beat with the things to do, the places to go, all that stuff in Arizona, this is your channel. And if you go onto our home page you can see a really large video library. Everything from things to do to popular small towns. People really love those small town videos. Also doing some off-road videos. You can go through all of our playlists and really binge watch this stuff on the weekend. That's what a lot of people like to do especially if they're from out of state and they want to familiarize themselves with Arizona. I really recommend that Arizona road trip playlist with all those videos. But anyway we're going to show you around Queen Creek now back here on the southeast side of Phoenix. The reason I like Queen Creek a little bit more as a safe place than Gilbert is because I feel like Gilbert's getting a little bit closer to the heart of Phoenix. Whereas Queen Creek's a bit further tucked away in the southeast so it's a little bit more safe and it doesn't get that big city vibe that kind of carries over into Gilbert. I'm not saying that Gilbert is dangerous or not safe because obviously it was on this list. I'm just saying if you wanted that extra comfort safety Queen Creek seems to rank right on up there. It's one of the fastest growing suburbs in Phoenix in the country really but it's very modern. I would say that Queen Creek has learned from Gilbert's growth and done it a little bit better. I would say the prospects for being out in Queen Creek are a little bit brighter even more so than Gilbert. The one advantage Gilbert has is it's connected to the highway system with the loop 202 there. Queen Creek still doesn't really have a freeway network reaching out to it. A couple things to consider about the freeway is it's more access for people to get in and out which could be a good or negative thing. Also not having public transportation can also be a good or negative thing. One of the reasons people don't like it being easily accessible to the outside with public transport or with big freeways is it brings in certain types of people that they don't want from the outside. Maybe people who are prone to crime or robbery or thievery. That's kind of why Scottsdale also doesn't build the light rail up there because they don't want people who are living in the tougher areas whether they're homeless or on drugs or something having easy access to get up into Scottsdale to cause problems. So with that being said the fact that Queen Creek is out there kind of tucked away from all of the accessibility it does make it a bit more safe but also it's just a great place to live. I mean I used to live out in Queen Creek for a little bit and then from here in Queen Creek now we're actually headed down to Tucson. This one's north of Tucson a bit at the base of the Catalina Mountains. This here is Oro Valley. Now Oro Valley makes it as the number one safest place in Arizona on this list. I would say if you're really looking for a good quality lifestyle safe not too much threats around here. There are some wildfires that can happen. There are some other petty theft things that happen nearby. Tucson generally speaking is a pretty safe place as long as you're not in south Tucson. That's the only area around Tucson that has higher crime but really Oro Valley sitting there at the base of those mountains. Spectacular monsoons. They get nice rainbows. You can get wildlife in your backyard. Javelinas, deer, coyotes, occasional bobcats and mountain lions. I guess that could be something that you might have to be on guard for but Oro Valley there's a reason why it's number one on this list and if you're thinking about moving to Tucson I would say take a look at that Oro Valley. Take a look at Sarita which is to the south. This one's obviously to the north and then even consider going around the Catalina foothills. I really love it out here especially during monsoon season. Oro Valley has a population of about 50,000 residents known for its master planned communities, mountain views, the golf courses, hiking and biking. Very upscale suburban feel out here and violent crime is low. I think they recorded zero homicides in 2025 so that tells you about how safe it is up here. Quiet nightlife. More expensive than many of the Arizona suburbs though so there is that downside but you're going to get luxury desert living in that safe Arizona mountain town. It's a good safe retirement town for those of you who have it within your budget and for those of you who want to see the top 10 best small towns in Arizona I'll put a link right here at the very end. Click that link right there and see you over there.