With over 34,000 Americans affected by gun violence this year and the country having experienced $24 billion climate disasters, the personal-finance website WalletHub recently released its report on “2023’s Safest States in America.”
In order to determine the most secure states, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 52 key metrics. The data set ranges from assaults per capita to the total loss amount from climate disasters per capita to the unemployment rate.
The safest states were determined to be, in order: Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Utah, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Hawaii, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Wyoming.
The least safe were Missouri, Montana, Colorado, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Key takeaways from the survey were:
- Rhode Island has the fewest murders and non-negligent manslaughters per 100,000 residents, 1.46, which is 11 times fewer than in Louisiana, the most at 16.12.
- Idaho has the fewest thefts per 1,000 residents, 9.35, which is 3.7 times fewer than in Washington, the most at 34.43.
- New Jersey has the most law-enforcement employees per 100,000 residents, 541, which is 2.8 times more than in Washington, the fewest at 196.
- Delaware has the lowest share of high school students who were bullied online, 9.70 percent, which is 2.2 times lower than in New Hampshire, the highest at 21.80 percent.