By MOLLY DAVIDSON / Staff Writer

Along with schools, parks and event venues, Hoover can add safety to its list of highlights. The city was named one of Alabama’s safest towns of 2015 by Niche.com, a national ranking website.

Hoover came in at No. 9 on the 2015 Safest Towns in Alabama list.

Hoover’s violent crime rates—murder, assault, rape and robbery—all came in under national averages.

Niche.com noted Hoover’s low robbery rate, of 40.4 for every 100,000 residents. The national average is 159.8 for every 100,000 residents.

Hoover also boasts a low assault rate of 34 assaults per 100,000 residents. Jacksonville, No. 10 on the safest towns list, has an assault rate of 178 per 100,000 residents, and the national average is 278.9 for every 100,000 residents.

Hoover’s murder rate is also low, coming in at two per 100,000 residents, or 1.68 for the city’s population of just over 84,000. The national average is 5 for every 100,000 residents.

Niche.com analyzed and ranked Hoover among comparable locations across the state, or local area cohorts. The “town” classification includes “a place located within a Census-defined urbanized cluster or a principal city for an urbanized area with a population greater than or equal to 5,000 and less than 100,000.”

Four other Shelby County cities were named among the safest suburbs in Alabama on a separate list.

Helena, Pelham, Alabaster and Montevallo were all ranked among the top 20 on Niche.com’s 2015 Safest Suburbs in Alabama list.

Helena took third, followed by Pelham at No. 8, Alabaster in the ninth slot and Montevallo at No. 17.

Niche.com defined suburbs as “a place located within a Census-defined urbanized area, but outside the principal city with a population of at least 1,000.”

To compile both ranking lists, Niche.com analyzed FBI uniform crime reports for murder rate, assault rate, robbery rate, burglary rate, larceny rate and vehicle theft rate. The most weight was given to murder rate while burglary, larceny and vehicle theft rates carried the least weight.

To view the entire 2015 Safest Towns in Alabama list, visit Local.niche.com/rankings/towns/safest/s/alabama/.

To view the entire 2015 Safest Suburbs in Alabama list, visit Local.niche.com/rankings/suburbs/safest/s/alabama/.