You may be surprised when you see who's on these two lists. A recently released report by ValuePenguin.com, a personal finance and research and analysis website, ranked California towns based on a variety of FBI crime metrics, including property-based crimes, like burglaries and vehicle thefts, and violent crimes, including rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Rankings were based on 2014 statistics, and each town was assigned a "crime score" — the lower, the better (see lists below).

There were actually three lists: Large towns, with populations of more than 30,000; mid-sized communities, with populations between 15,000 and 30,000; and small towns, with between 5,000 and 15,000 people. Towns with less than 5,000 residents were excluded.

Image courtesy of ValuePenguin. Used with permission.
The agency released lists of the top 10 from each category, with San Ramon, Rancho Santa Margarita and Imperial taking top honors.
The border-community of Imperial took home top billing overall, edging up from last year's number two spot.

"This small city is not only the safest place, Imperial is the only community with a final crime score below 200. It had the lowest rate of property crime of any California city in this study," ValuePenguin says.

Image courtesy of ValuePenguin. Used with permission.

They also released an overall list, ranking a total of 416 California communities. Below are two lists, one that shows the 100 safest California towns, and the other showing the 100 "least safe."

Safest:

1. Imperial
2. Rancho Santa Margarita
3. Laguna Woods
4. Los Altos Hills
5. Kensington
6. Hillsborough
7. Aliso Viejo
8. Palos Verdes Estates
9. Clayton
10. Moraga
11. Orinda
12. Atherton
13. Ione
14. Tiburon
15. St. Helena
16. Los Altos
17. Sierra Madre
18. Saratoga
19. Danville
20. Lincoln
21. San Ramon
22. La Habra Heights
23. Moorpark
24. Guadalupe
25. Foster City
26. Mission Viejo
27. Calabasas
28. Calistoga
29. Walnut
30. Truckee
31. Rancho Palos Verdes
32. Laguna Niguel
33. Agoura Hills
34. Yorba Linda
35. Williams
36. Villa Park
37. Canyon Lake
38. Mill Valley
39. Avenal
40. Lake Forest
41. Rolling Hills Estates
42. Poway
43. Hercules
44. San Clemente
45. San Marino
46. Soledad
47. Temple City
48. Oakley
49. Diamond Bar
50. La Palma
51. Irvine
52. Orange Cove
53. La Canada Flintridge
54. San Juan Capistrano
55. Murrieta
56. Solvang
57. Chino Hills
58. Ojai
59. Goleta
60. Carpinteria
61. Sebastopol
62. Thousand Oaks
63. Fillmore
64. Belmont
65. Fairfax
66. Solana Beach
67. Simi Valley
68. Lafayette
69. Colusa
70. Laguna Hills
71. Cypress
72. Camarillo
73. Ripon
74. Los Alamitos
75. Westlake Village
76. Twentynine Palms
77. Cupertino
78. Benicia
79. Santa Clarita
80. Wildomar
81. Novato
82. La Mirada
83. Dublin
84. Bear Valley
85. Placentia
86. Piedmont
87. Maywood
88. Newman
89. Pleasanton
90. Morgan Hill
91. Windsor
92. Rocklin
93. Dana Point
94. Eastvale
95. South Pasadena
96. San Gabriel
97. Hughson
98. Encinitas
99. Glendale
100. Indian Wells

Least Safe (in order from 'most safe' to 'least safe'):
Source