For one thing, inner city murders are dispute resolution for people who don't believe in the courts far more often then they're random. If you're not involved in gang feuds, you can write off a good chunk of the murder rate. You also have to look at those stats adjusted for density. Chicago has a lot of murders because it is large, for example. Per capita it is unexceptional.
Cities are made less safe when only the desperate remain. Funding for services that contribute to safety (schools, mental health, homeless shelters, even police) crumbles with the tax base. A middle class re-immigration to the cities in theory brings with it the money and political will to rebuild those services. What we see now in decaying cities is not an essential property of cities, but an effect of their abandonment. New York is a great case study about how a city can clean up and bounce back from this, though it's tactics were sometimes flawed.
In places without the density to support transit, you are less likely to be the victim of a street robbery but also far more likely to die in an auto accident, particularly a DUI. I have insurance for my phone and a backup debit card at home. I only have one life.
So no, probably not. Particularly the further away ones. As "average daily hours in a car" grows, your safety does not.
Generally speaking, in cities you are more likely to be the victim of homicide and crime. In suburban and rural environments you are substantially more likely to be killed/injured in general.
You've also got to factor in people's perceptions vs just statistics.
Take gun homicides for example. The vast majority of people who push for gun control that I've had discussions with (totally anecdotal, I realize) will cite mass shootings as a reason rather than gang violence even though the latter accounts for an astronomically higher percentage than the former.
The difference is that, if you're not in a gang you generally don't have to be concerned about dying in a gang shootout. A mass shooting on the other hand, could happen to anybody in a public place regardless of whether or not you've removed yourself from other likely causes. In other words, you have no control over the latter so it creates a higher level of fear even though it's rare.
Similarly, flying in an airplane exacts more fear than driving a car because when you're in a car you feel in control.
Lastly though, it is about more than just safety. I have 2 kids. I moved to the suburbs.
In the suburbs I can have more yard space and house space and room space and quiet for the kids to play than if I were in the city. Safety wasn't really a factor as much as just having space (for me at least).
That only accounts for city vs rural. It never says where suburbs fall on that scale. If they are going based on US government definitions, suburbs are mostly considered urban (1000 people/sq mile or more).
