Are cities or rural areas safer? The answer might surprise you.

New research from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine has yielded an unexpected finding – considering safety as risk of injury overall, large cities are safest, and areas get less safe as they become more rural.

The study, published Tuesday in the Annals of Emergency Medicine,  found that motor vehicle crashes, firearms and poisoning were the top causes of injury-related deaths, NewsWorks reports.

The study also confirms that murder rates are higher in more urban areas, but fatal car crashes are much more common, especially in rural areas. The greater magnitude of unintentional-injury deaths (car crashes, falls, etc) gave cities the edge when it comes to safety.