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- The ranking is based on 53 different indicators including foreclosure rates, share of uninsured drivers, and drug abuses per capita.
- Researchers also took the percentage of residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19 into account.
- Louisiana was ranked as the least-safe state, followed by Mississippi and Arkansas.
Vermont is the safest state in the United States, according to a new report from WalletHub. The ranking is based on 53 different indicators ranging from unemployment rates to assaults per capita.
Vermont is followed by Maine, New Hampshire, Utah, and Hawaii, respectively. Results come after a similar report from the organization ranked Columbia, Md. as the safest city in the country, followed by Nashua, N.H.; Laredo, Texas; Portland, Maine; and Warwick, R.I.
To measure each state’s safety, researchers classified each of the 53 indicators into five subcategories: personal and residential safety, financial safety, road safety, workplace safety, and emergency preparedness.
Personal and residential safety held the most weight out of all the categories and included factors like percentage of residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and number of mass shootings.
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“Although vaccines have greatly diminished [the COVID-19] threat in 2022, there have still been over 204,000 deaths from COVID-19 this year. To put that in perspective, that’s several times more than the number of motor vehicle deaths (21,000) and non-suicide gun-related deaths (15,200) in 2022 combined,” the report reads.
“This goes to show that how worried we feel about a threat isn’t necessarily proportional to how many people it affects.”
Rounding out the top 10 safest states were Massachusetts, Connecticut, Minnesota, Washington and Rhode Island.
On the other end of the spectrum, Louisiana ranked as the least-safe state in the report, with Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, and Alabama following suit.
When it comes to rates of fatal occupational injuries in each state, Alaska and Wyoming were tied for the most incidences per total workers, as these states saw 12 times more occupational fatalities than the highest ranking state, Rhode Island.
Hawaii, New York and Massachusetts ranked among the most financially secure states, as high proportions of residents in these states report having rainy day funds. Meanwhile, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia adults reported having the least money saved for a rainy day.
Oklahoma also ranked among the bottom five states for its share of uninsured residents.
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