Fresno is a great place to live, as this city is known to be a place for everyone. Even though Fresno is severely underrated and overlooked, the fifth-largest city in California is definitely worth visiting and settling down.
Fresno is well-known for its farms, but it’s not just a farmer’s haven. The city of Fresno of California attracts residents with inexpensive housing, a diverse job market, and various cultural attractions.
If you are thinking about moving to Fresno of California, you might also want to know about the situation of this city regarding safety concerns. It is normal to get concerned about the crime rates in a place when you are deciding if you should move there or not.
In this article, we will talk about Fresno and its crime rates and will also talk about if Fresno is safe to live in, or not so safe.
If we look into the stats, Fresno is a marginally safe place to settle in. The rate of violent crimes in the city of Fresno was 656.69 in 2020. Fresno is ranked 47th in the list of 100 most populous cities of the USA based on violent crimes.
Various crimes keep occurring in this city, including property crimes and violent crimes. Among the property crimes, there are theft, motor vehicle theft, burglary, etc. Among the violent crimes, there are murder, rape, aggravated assault, etc.
Even though the rates of these crimes are not dangerous enough to not decide to settle in this city, they are still quite concerning.
Problems You Might Face after Settling in Fresno
To understand if the decision of living in this city is a good one, or a quite dangerous one, you will first need to know the problems one might face while living in this city, along with the property and violent crimes. Let’s have a look at the problems.
Polluted Air
The air of Fresno has a really high PM2.5 concentration, in fact, one of the highest in the country. It causes holes in the atmosphere’s ozone layer, and a number of health problems can occur in the residents due to that, like lungs cancer, premature death, delays in development.
The reason behind the serious air pollution of this city is the expanded extraction industry and the valley’s bowl-like shape where Fresno is situated. The air can’t spread much due to that, and the concentration of harmful substances keeps increasing as a result.
Scorching Heat
Since Fresno doesn’t have a fresh coastal breeze and is surrounded by mountains, it becomes like a desert during summer. The heat level of this city gets so unbearable during July and August that you won’t be able to go outside. As the sun is more aggressive there due to the damages in the ozone layer, the risk of skin cancer increases as well.
Unemployment and Poverty
Fresno has a huge number of people that are living in poverty. In fact, the rate is second highest among the cities of the USA, as every 4th resident of this city doesn’t have enough income to lead a happy life there.
The rate of higher education is also concerning, as only 6.7% of the adults in the city hold a bachelor’s degree. That’s why the unemployment rate in the city is quite high, even though there is a good number of well-paid jobs out there.
Taxes
Fresno has a higher combined sales tax rate than California, which is 7.95%.
These are some of the problems that you might have to deal with as a resident of Fresno. But the most concerning of all problems is the high crime rate in the city. Let’s have a look at the crime rates of the city of Fresno.
High Crime Rate of Fresno
Around 25% of the population of Fresno lives below the poverty line. That means a high concentration of youth doesn’t have enough money to lead a good life and doesn’t have proper jobs to earn their living. This along with many other reasons contribute to the increase in crime rates in Fresno, making it a bit dangerous for its residents.
If we talk about violent crimes at first, the number of reported violent crimes was 3560 as of 2020. The rate of violent crimes is 656.69 per 100,000 residents, whereas the national average rate for these crimes is only 366.7 per 100,000 people. So, the rate of violent crimes is significantly higher in Freson than the average rate in the USA. The rate is 1.8x higher to be exact. Here the violent crimes include aggravated assaults, robbery, rapes, and homicides.
Among the violent crimes, the rate of murder is significantly higher than the average murder rate in the USA. As the rate is 14.2 per 100,000 people in Fresno, whereas the national average is 5 per 100,000. Rates of rape, assault, and robbery are also significantly higher than the national averages for each of them.
Back in 2020, the reported number of property crimes in the city of Fresno was 16,474. Here the rate is 3038.88 per 100,000 residents, which too is significantly higher than the national average for property crimes.
The national average is 2109.0 per 100,000 people which is 1.4x lower than the property crime rate of Fresno. Property crimes usually include burglary, arson, motor vehicle theft, larceny-theft, etc.
Final Words
You can see that the crime rates in Fresno of California are quite high, which makes it a bit dangerous for people who want to move here. Also, there are other problems to deal with too. All these can make you think that Fresno might be dangerous for you to settle in, but it has a lot of good sides too. The advantages of living in this city even outweigh the problems, as this city offers a lot to its residents.
The living cost in Fresno is highly affordable, especially more affordable than the other contemporary cities of California. Apart from the crimes, the usual people are really friendly here. The education opportunities, job opportunities, and business opportunities are really well too. Especially the business opportunities are flourishing. Its art culture and food culture are also amazing, especially the food of Fresno is really popular.
Most importantly, the agriculture sector of Fresno makes it a really captivating city, as the farmlands in Fresco are highly rich in producing various crops, fruits, and dairy too. All these things create a mixture of urban and small-town vibe in Fresno, which makes this city quite a fascinating place to live in.