Which local suburbs rank among the safest cities in North Carolina?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Families choosing where to put down roots take a variety of factors into consideration — among them, quality of schools, cost of housing and safety.

On that latter point, SafeWise, which bills itself as an independent review site and expert on home security and safety products, came out with a list this spring of the 20 safest cities in North Carolina.

To identify those communities, SafeWise reviewed 2016 FBI crime report statistics and population data, excluding cities that fell below identified population thresholds or that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI. To make it easier to directly compare the likelihood of violent or property crimes occurring in each locale, the site calculated the rate of crimes per 1,000 residents.

Several Charlotte-area suburbs rank among the top 20.

Click through this slideshow to find out where across North Carolina you'll find the safest cities.

Cox Media Group