A Gallup Poll recently asked Americans who live in America's 50 biggest metropolitan areas if they feel safe walking alone at night.

As reported by Yahoo.com, residents feel scarcely less secure than the national average: 71 percent of big-city residents and their suburban neighbors, vs. 72 percent for the nation as a whole.

The variation was wide -- a 25-percentage-point difference -- between the least and most secure-feeling city dwellers.

Interestingly, residents of some of the nation's most dangerous metro areas, like Detroit and St. Louis, aren't especially nervous about walking alone at night, according to Yahoo. In fact, nearly three-quarters of St. Louis-area residents feel safe doing so, which puts that metro in the top 15 of the safest-feeling cities. By contrast, people in the Silicon Valley, Dallas and San Diego areas are considerably more wary.

Certainly there's a strong correlation between the FBI violent crime rate and how residents actually feel, Gallup says. In the Memphis area, the smallest proportion of residents feel safe walking alone at night out of the 50 big metro areas surveyed -- and indeed, Memphis is one of the most dangerous cities in America, according to a report published on Yahoo! Homes.

Yahoo reported that the most secure of all big-metro dwellers live in the Twin Cities: A very impressive 80 percent of Minneapolis-area residents feel safe walking at night.

Below are the eight metro areas where residents feel least safe walking at night, according to Gallup.

Gallup asked: "Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you live?"

No. 1 (least likely to feel safe): Memphis, TN-MS-AR
43% say no, they don't feel safe
55% say yes, they feel safe

No. 2: New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA
41% say no, they don't feel safe
59% say yes, they feel safe

No. 3: Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA
38% say no, they don't feel safe
61% say yes, they feel safe

No. 4 (tie): Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX
36% say no, they don't feel safe
63% say yes, they feel safe
(Interesting side note: Late last summer, Forbes named Houston "America's hippest city.")

No. 4 (tie): Jacksonville, FL
36% say no, they don't feel safe
63% say yes, they feel safe

No. 6: Las Vegas-Paradise, NV
34% say no, they don't feel safe
65% say yes, they feel safe

No. 7 (tie): Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL
32% say no, they don't feel safe
66% say yes, they feel safe

No. 7 (tie): Baltimore-Towson, MD
32% say no, they don't feel safe
66% say yes, they feel safe