Full press release and stats after the article.

 

From Business First of Columbus, 8/4/06:

 

 

Columbus cars safer from thieves

Business First of Columbus - August 4, 2006

by Matt Burns

Business First

 

The chances of having your car stolen in Columbus are lower than in Cleveland and Cincinnati, an insurance industry survey has found.

 

The Ohio Insurance Institute, a trade group for the state's property/casualty insurers, said auto thefts were down in Columbus last year, bucking the statewide trend, giving the city better theft rates than the state's other major metropolises.

 

In Columbus, one auto was stolen for every 92 registered, compared with one in 64 in Cincinnati and one in 43 in Cleveland, which posted the highest rate in the state.

 

http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2006/07/31/daily38.html

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SLIGHT INCREASE PREDICTED IN 2005 OHIO AUTO THEFTS

 

COLUMBUS – Auto thefts in Ohio appear to have risen 2.6% between 2004 and 2005 based on auto theft survey results of 16 major Ohio city police departments and data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, according to estimates released by the Ohio Insurance Institute (OII).

 

This follows Ohio decreases of 0.3% (2003–2004) and 4.1% (2002–2003). US auto thefts decreased 1.9% between 2003–2004. 1995-2005 Ohio and US auto theft figures are shown in Table 2 below.

 

OII findings suggest Cleveland poses the greatest risk of auto theft in the Buckeye state. There was one theft for every 43 registered vehicles in Cleveland in 2005, an even greater risk than its 2004 ratio of one in 53 vehicles. Auto theft-wise, cities close behind Cleveland’s ratio are Dayton (1 in 62) and Cincinnati (1 in 64). Dayton averaged one theft for every 54 registered vehicles in 2004; Cincinnati averaged one for every 77 vehicles.

 

http://www.ohioinsurance.org/newsroom/newsroom_full.asp?id=372

 

Once again, it seems deceptive to me to compare the C's in this...well, maybe Cincinnati and Cleveland, since they have similar areas, but Columbus has annexed so much of what would be suburban-type areas in Cleveland, that definitely impacts their numbers.  For example, Parma is considered separately from Cleveland here - now, correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is that the Parma-equivalents in Columbus would be part of Columbus...so if you add Parma's numbers into Cleveland's, that drops it to 1 in 53.

 

Now, how many other Parma-like areas would be added to Cleveland's numbers if it were 210 square miles rather than 77 or 78?  No idea...but I don't know that these figures really speak to the likelyhood of you getting your car stolen in either city.

 

^ yea exactly, i wonder why they didnt do metro areas.

Because they're insurance agents, not urban forum geeks like us.  Plus, they make more if they charge a premium to us suckers living in the city.