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2016’s Safest States in America

by Richie Bernardo  |  Jun 7, 2016

1.4K Shares

With every new headline of a school shooting, terrorist attack or natural disaster, we can’t help but
worry about our safety and of those we love. Safety, after all, is a fundamental human need. And we
all require it to some degree in every setting of daily life: at home, in our classrooms, on our roads,
in our places of work.

Every state provides a different level of safety in each of these areas. Thus, when choosing a new
place to lay down roots, we must carefully consider the types of security we most highly prioritize —
and insulate our finances against life’s hazards in order to minimize their potential damage.

To help ease the relocation process, especially during this season of peak moving, WalletHub’s
analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 25 key “safety” metrics. Our
data set ranges from “number of assaults per capita” to “unemployment rate” to “estimated losses

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from climate disasters.” Continue reading below for our findings, expert commentary and a full
description of our methodology.

1 Main Findings

2 Ask the Experts

3 Methodology

MainFindings
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‘Safety
‘Home & ‘Road
Overall Total ‘Financial ‘Workplace from
Community Safety’
Rank State Score Safety’ Safety’ Natural
Safety’ Rank
Rank Rank Disasters’
Rank
Rank

1 Vermont 66.78 1 10 5 16
2 Massachusetts 63.86 7 7 1 23
New
3 62.57 10 4 9 7
Hampshire
4 Rhode Island 61.30 4 36 4 1 16

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‘Safety
‘Home & ‘Road
Overall Total ‘Financial ‘Workplace from
Community Safety’
Rank State Score Safety’ Safety’ Natural
Safety’ Rank
Rank Rank Disasters’
Rank
Rank

5 Maine 61.22 8 27 15 12
6 Connecticut 60.70 3 18 6 15 18
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7 Minnesota 60.54 11 2 3 3 30
8 Virginia 56.58 12 16 8 2 32
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9 Utah 55.79 32 9 13 19
10 Iowa 55.68 6 6 11 Credit41
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11 Wisconsin 55.54 21 8 14 18 19
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12 New York 54.15 5 19 10 35 41
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13 Ohio 54.03 19 23 12 8 31
14 Pennsylvania 53.53 9 15 31 Tools 36  27
15 New Jersey 53.40 2 28 17 21 46
16 West Virginia 52.58 15 39 28 39 15
17 Illinois 52.29 20 22 2 33 39
18 Maryland 52.15 25 26 23 10 26
19 California 51.38 23 35 33 40
20 North Dakota 51.30 16 1 47 51
21 Washington 51.25 27 31 18 24 20
22 Indiana 50.37 22 37 16 27 35
23 North Carolina 49.90 14 41 41 5 38
24 Idaho 49.26 18 25 26 42 22
25 Michigan 48.66 44 17 19 29 10
26 Nebraska 48.60 26 3 24 38 44
27 Hawaii 48.20 24 24 37 45
28 Montana 48.15 30 20 40 34 21
29 Arizona 47.53 39 14 45 6 23
District of
30 47.40 50 47 7 4
Columbia

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‘Safety
‘Home & ‘Road
Overall Total ‘Financial ‘Workplace from
Community Safety’
Rank State Score Safety’ Safety’ Natural
Safety’ Rank
Rank Rank Disasters’
Rank
Rank

31 Delaware 47.35 45 34 30 13 13
32 Georgia 47.00 33 44 21 14 37
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33 Oregon 46.84 35 45 20 31 24
34 Kentucky 46.56 13 42 38 37 40
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35 Colorado 45.69 31 11 34 22 42
36 Wyoming 44.73 17 13 49 Credit47
Cards 25
37 South Dakota 44.11 29 5 46 50 28
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38 Florida 43.51 46 43 42 9 17
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39 Texas 42.99 38 30 36 17 45
40 Alabama 42.48 37 40 27 Tools 11  48
41 Kansas 42.02 28 12 29 30 50
42 Missouri 41.70 41 21 22 20 49
43 Nevada 41.33 42 50 43 25 14
44 Arkansas 41.27 51 38 25 32 33
45 Louisiana 40.01 40 46 39 43 34
46 South Carolina 39.98 48 48 44 26 29
47 Tennessee 37.98 43 33 35 28 47
48 New Mexico 36.94 47 51 51 44 12
49 Alaska 36.12 49 29 48 46
50 Oklahoma 35.29 34 32 32 48 51
51 Mississippi 34.00 36 49 50 49 43

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Ask the Experts

There’s no place that’s completely immune to all danger, no matter its form. Some areas simply deal
with safety issues better than others. For additional insight and advice, we asked a panel of experts
to share their thoughts on various safety concerns. Click on the experts’ profiles below to read their
bios and responses to the following key questions:

1. There are many different potential threats to one’s safety: crime, weather, pollution,
dangerous workplaces. In choosing a place to live, how should people weigh the risks?
2. What can state and local policymakers do to reduce crime in their communities?
3. What tips do you have for consumers looking to improve their “financial” safety?

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John R.
Professor
University

n choosing

John R. Logan David Turcotte John Roman

Professor of Sociology and Research Professor in the Senior Fellow in the Policy
Director of the Spatial Structures Department of Economics, Advisory Group and the Justice
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in the Social Sciences Initiative SeniorFREE CREDIT
Program SCORES
Manager at & REPORTS
the Policy Center at Urban Institute
at Brown University Center for Family, Work, and
Community, and Director of the
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Institute for Housing
Sustainability at University of
Massachusetts Lowell
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their com
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Although
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guns, few
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make the
Molly Sween Stephen Gibbons Thomas E. Simmons suicide, a
Assistant Professor in the Professor of Criminal Justice at Associate Professor at public ed
Department of Criminal Justice Western Oregon University University of South Dakota
family we
at Weber State University School of Law

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ws allow you

Reneè D. Lamphere Brenda L. Vogel Miriam Northcutt Bohmert

Assistant Professor of Criminal
Justice at University of North
Carolina at Pembroke
Professor of Criminology and Assistant Professor of Criminal
Criminal Justice, and Director of Justice at Indiana University -
the School of Criminology, Bloomington
Criminal Justice, and
Emergency Management at
California State University, Long
Beach

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Ronal Serpas Lucy Edwards Hochstein

Professor of Practice in the Professor of Criminal Justice at
Department of Criminology and Radford University
Justice at Loyola University New
Orleans

Methodology
In order to identify the safest
GETstates in which
UNLIMITED FREE to live, WalletHub’s
CREDIT analysts compared the 50 states
SCORES & REPORTS
and the District of Columbia across five key dimensions:1) Home & Community Safety, 2) Financial
Safety, 3) Road Safety, 4) Workplace Safety, and 5) Safety from Natural Disasters.
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We first identified 25 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights.
Each metric was given a value between 0 and 100, wherein 100 represents the highest level of
Credit Cards
safety and 0 the lowest.
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Finally, we calculated the overall score for each state using the weighted average across all metrics
and ranked the states accordingly. Companies 

Home & Community Safety - Total Points: 40 Tools 

Number of Murders & Non-Negligent Manslaughters per Capita: Double Weight (~5.33 Points)
Number of Forcible Rapes per Capita: Double Weight (~5.33 Points)
Number of Assaults per Capita: Double Weight (~5.33 Points)
Number of Thefts per Capita: Double Weight (~5.33 Points)
Number of Sex Offenders per Capita: Double Weight (~5.33 Points)
Number of Drug Abuses per Capita: Full Weight (~2.67 Points)
Total Law-Enforcement Employees per Capita: Full Weight (~2.67 Points)
Number of Active Firefighters per Capita: Full Weight (~2.67 Points)
Suicide Rate: Full Weight (~2.67 Points)
Bullying-Incidents Rate: Full Weight (~2.67 Points)

Financial Safety- Total Points: 15

Percentage of Population Lacking Health-Insurance Coverage: Full Weight (~1.88 Points)

Unemployment Rate: Double Weight (~3.75 Points)
Foreclosure Rate: Full Weight(~1.88 Points)
Credit Score: Full Weight (~1.88 Points)
Debt per Income: Full Weight (~1.88 Points)
Poverty Rate: Full Weight (~1.88 Points)
Percentage of People with Rainy-Day Funds: Full Weight (~1.88 Points)

Road Safety - Total Points: 15

Number of Fatalities per 100 Million Vehicle Miles of Travel: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)
Number of DUIs per Capita: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)

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Pedestrian Fatality Rate per Capita: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)

Note: This metric also includes pedacyclists.

Workplace Safety - Total Points: 15

Fatal Occupational Injury Rate per 100,000 Full-Time Workers: Double Weight (~7.50 Points)
Injury & Illness Rate per 10,000 Full-Time Workers: Full Weight (~3.75 Points)
Median Days Lost Due to Occupational Injuries & Illnesses: Full Weight (~3.75 Points)

Safety from Natural Disasters - Total Points:

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Number of Climate Disasters Causing $1 Billion+ in Damages in Past Decades: Full Weight
(~7.50 Points)
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Estimated Property Losses from Natural Disasters per Capita: Full Weight (~7.50 Points)
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Sources: Data used to create these rankings were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau
of Labor Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Parents for Megan’s Law, U.S. Fire
Companies 
Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Centers for Environmental
Information, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Verisk Analytics, stopbullying.gov,
Tools
Kaiser

Family Foundation, FINRA Investor Education Foundation, TransUnion and CoreLogic.

Author

Richie Bernardo
Follow
Richie Bernardo is a personal finance writer at WalletHub.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism and a minor in
business from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Previously, he was a…
3625 Wallet Points

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Community Discussion
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Enemy wallethub @newthangs2
Sep 1, 2016
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Wyoming has never had a natural disater that totalled in the billions. Further to put Wyoming at a
lower rank for crime below some of the most corrupt states in the Union shows that this chart
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Worthless. All the states on the Eastern seaboard and the Southern seaboard that are above
Wyoming have had numerous major natural disaters over the last decade. Wyoming has safe 
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communities with much lower crime rates. The I-80 through… read more
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@sherrydriscoll19
Jun 8, 2016

I am proud of North Dakota which is where I live now but saddened by my home State Mississippi!
North Dakota does deal with what life deals them the best they can always keeping the people first
from my experience although some don't see eye to eye. That's life. But Mississippi's problem is
they have the wrong people (who are money and power hungry just full,of greed of it) and they
need to vote them… read more

Reply · Flag

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