New York remains the safest big city in the nation, Mayor Bloomberg boasted last night as the FBI released statistics showing crime dropped by 5.1 percent last year.

Nationwide, it was down 5 percent. The preliminary data placed the Big Apple at 245th on a list of 263 large cities’ crime rates.

Murders fell 9.9 percent to a record low of 466 compared to a 7.2 percent decline nationwide.

The city’s murder rate has increased so far this year, but Bloomberg argued that was bound to happen.

“The numbers are so low that they’ll always continue to go up and down a little bit,” he said.