The Greater Boston area is the fourth-safest place among the largest 40 cities in the U.S., according to a ranking by Forbes.

The rankings take into account each city’s 2008 levels of violent crime, workplace fatalities rates, traffic death rates and natural disaster risk. The Boston-Cambridge-Quincy statistical area ranked 10th in violent crime and fifth in workplace fatality rates. Greater Boston had the best ranking when it comes to traffic-related fatalities and ranked 28th in natural disaster risk.

With 4.5 million residents, the area was the largest metro included in Forbes’ top five safest cities.

-source, Greater Boston Real Estate Board 11/4/09 bulletin