The Pacific Northwest is the most secure place to live, work andraise a family, according to the fifth annual Farmers InsuranceStudy, which ranks the most secure places to live in the U.S.

The study examines 379 municipalities throughout the U.S.,considering myriad factors such as crime statistics, extremeweather, risk of natural disasters, housing depreciation,foreclosures, air quality, life expectancy and job loss numbers.Municipalities were divided into three groups: large metropolitanareas (500,000 or more residents), midsize cities (150,000- 500,000residents) and small towns (fewer than 150,000 residents).

A high job growth rate and long life expectancy, as well asminimal housing depreciation and lack of extreme weathercontributed to the area's top rating in the study. The area is hometo such Fortune 500 companies as Amazon.com, Nordstrom, Starbucks,Safeco Corp. and T-Mobile USA.

The Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash., area catapulted from 17thplace among large metropolitan areas in 2007 to first place in2008. The Portland-Beaverton, Ore./ Vancouver, Wash., area rankssecond among large cities in this year's study, while Honolulu,Hawaii, is third. This marks the fifth straight year Honolulu isranked in the Top 20 among large cities.

The Pacific Northwest also continued to dominate in the midsizeU.S. city category, according to the study. Olympia, Wash., came infirst for the second year in a row. Las Cruces, N.M.--the mostsecure midsize of 2006--came in second, with Salem, Ore., rankingthird.

In the category of small towns the dynasty of the PacificNorthwest was cemented with Corvallis, Ore., in first place.Veteran top-20 municipalities Bismarck, N.D., and Logan, Utah, weresecond and third, respectively.

Robert Woudstra, Farmers chief executive officer, said in astatement, "The Farmers Most Secure Places to Live survey reveals alot about how local governments and citizens work together to maketheir communities a desirable choice for individuals and familiesto live, work and grow."

A complete list can be found at HYPERLINK"http://www.bestplaces.net" www.bestplaces.net .