And the Safest Towns in Rhode Island Are. . .

Real estate research site Movado has compiled a list of the 10 safest communities in Rhode Island and it's no surprise that the list is mostly rural communities with a strong presence in South County.

The town of Richmond led the pack, followed by Scituate, Little Compton, East Greenwich, Barrington and Glocester.

In 7th is the Aquidneck Island community of Portsmouth, followed by South Kingstown, North Kingstown and Bristol holding up the rear at no 10.

The report relies heavily on the FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2012 for its data and the rankings are based the numbers of murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts.

Fourth-place East Greenwich is described as a "very safe" community with a no murders, rapes or assaults reported in 2012 but there were eight robberies per 100,000 people.

Barrington ranked sixth lowest for violent crime, property crime and total crime, which means residents there have just a 1 in 88 chance of being a victim of a crime. 

"Residents there can breathe easy knowing that they live in one of the safest towns in the state," the report states.

In Portsmouth, the report describes it as a "really beautiful place to call home" with the town ranking 11th in property crime, which isn't the best but "is still a pretty decent score."

South Kingstown residents have just a 1 in 102 chance of being a victim of a crime here, which is one of the lowest chances on the list. But its large population — the largest in the top 10 — skews crime figures upward, which hurts its ranking.

North Kingstown, meanwhile, does well with violent crime rankings but "only fared about middle of the pack for property crime rank," the report states. Victims here have a 1 in 60 chance of being a victim.

In Bristol, residents have a 1 in 84 chance of being a victim of any crime.

To check out the full data and read the entire report, check out Movato Blog.