Safest and Most Dangerous States in the U.S. 2018: Annual Ranking Updated
WalletHub has released its 2018 report comparing the 50 states across 48 key safety indicators to determine which are the safest.
Editor’s note: Click here for the 2019 safest and most dangerous states.
Personal-finance website WalletHub has released the results of its annual “Safest States in America” report.
To rank each state, WalletHub looked at 48 key safety indicators grouped into five different categories: personal & residential safety, financial safety, road safety, workplace safety and emergency preparedness.
Data sets ranged from assaults per capita to unemployment rate to total loss amounts from climate disasters per capita.
You can view the full details of the report and its methodology here.
The Safest States in America
Just like last year, data shows that the safest area of the U.S is New England, with every state making the top 10. Overall the same states as last year remained in the top 10.
- Vermont
- Maine
- Minnesota
- Utah
- New Hampshire
- Connecticut
- Rhode Island
- Hawaii
- Massachusetts
- Washington
The Most Dangerous States in America
If you want to avoid the least safe states in the country, you will want to stear clear of the south. And Alaska, which made the top 10 least safe states replacing Arkansas from last year. The rest of the states remained the same, albeit in a different order.
- Mississippi
- Louisiana
- Oklahoma
- Texas
- Florida
- Arkansas
- Alabama
- Missouri
- Alaska
- South Carolina
Click here for a slideshow comparing statistics such as assaults per capita and law enforcement numbers between the safest and most dangerous states.
Security integrators, does this data correlate with what your different branches see across your region?
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About the Author
Steve Karantzoulidis, Web/Senior Editor
Steven A. Karantzoulidis is the Web Editor for Security Sales & Integration. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in Communication and has a background in Film, A/V and Social Media.
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What a total bull excrement study. All of the states in the bottom 10 are subject to either hurricanes or tornados, or both. The majority of the cities in the top 10 I would not walk through without carrying my pistol. Bridgeport, New Haven, and Hartford are some of the most dangerous cities in America, but Connecticut makes the top 10 list? It shows how flawed the entire study is.
I live in West Virginia & it’s a HELL of a lot safer to live in than most that are listed
You do realize that most people in Connecticut do not live in the cities that you just listed? Most people live in suburban areas in that state which are relatively safe. Also, none of the cities that you just mentioned are in the Top 50 for violent crime. You won’t have to carry a pistol on a regular basis in any of these cities to keep yourself safe. Lastly, read the methodology. They’re not just looking at crime or weather like hurricanes and tornadoes, but weather should definitely factor into how safe a state is.
How is Detroit, or Brooklyn not stated as highest. I’m not concern about natural disasters, what about crime? I want to live somewhere where my children wont get stabbed walking down the street. Any news on illinois, Michigan, New York, or Colorado?
I currently live in Florida and read your ratings on the safest and most dangerous places in the United States. I take exception to the fact that people from the northeast are always criticizing Florida, yet come here in droves in the winter.
My entire family, on my husbands side live in Massachusetts and from personal experience it is not one of safest places to live. The past two times I have been there (in the last three years), my credit cards have been stolen. Never once have my credit cards been stolen in Florida.
In addition, there is an extremely bad drug problem on Cape Cod. My niece had a friend that became addicted to heroin will living on Cape Cod (she came to Florida for rehab).
It seems as if the rankings have a blatant disregard for considering the size of the states and the population. Four states in the northeast are about equal in land mass to the size of Florida. I realize as a statistician, you can make numbers say whatever you want, depending on the criteria and method you use to come up with the answers.
There are good and bad areas in almost every state, but to say “you should avoid the south, if you want to be safe” is ludicrous. My husband family is always very proud of where they live, as most people. However, they constantly criticize Florida, yet still come for 3 to 4 months every winter. In the past, some of them have even owned second homes in Florida. I suppose your report is a nice way to undeservedly keep real estate prices sky high in the northeast; for everyone up there trying to sell and move to Florida. I am in no hurry to get back there and have been visiting almost every year for the past 29.
FYI, the Civil War was supposed to end a long time ago; however, I think too many people in the northeast are still involved or think they personally fought in it and won. I have one parent from the north and one from the south, so I feel as though I can make this statement having lived it.
Denver, CO is a great place to relocate to. But, I’m a 55 year old now and all these young millennials think they’re hot ****. But they don’t own a house like I do (hahaha) because the market is too high to buy a house here. Denver is now an “apartment city”. Too many rental units costing well over a grand a month, too many people and way too much traffic. I see it all the time now. You have to share a place with others to make ends meet in Denver or live miles away somewhere else not close to the city.
I live in New Mexico. OMG this place is crazy you are not safe here. My husband and I were on our way to North Carolina we stopped at a Walmart to.sleep.for a little while some time around 2am there was a man tapping on the driver side window. So my husband asked him what he needed and the guy told us to get out if our car and he took it.
So then we ended up homeless with nothing in New Mexico. We ended up staying at a homeless shelter called joy Junction. The homeless is so.crazy out here. Everywhere you walk you have to.keep looking down where you don’t get poked with a needle. People nodding out in the middle of the street.
Not enough cops such high crime. Don’t trust anyone here. My husband and I are stuck here till February. Then we off to the coast of Oregon..
California is the most dangerous city!
I live in South Alabama and it’s a great safe wonderful place to live.
California is not a city.
I live in Arkansas 😢😢
Why is everyone talking about cities when this post is about states?
You guys just love complaining. Boo hoo.
I live in Michigan. Even though the weather is not that bad, the crime rate is a bit high. There was a time when I went to the store, and I scaned my credit card when I was done shopping. What happened was I went to the store a couple weeks later & $900 was missing and I was so mad. And a couple weeks ago I went to Blakes Apple Orchard and we went on the hayride and it started to Hail on us when we were picking apples and pumpkins, and that was in October. So yeah the weather isn’t that great either.
TOTAL BS
new york should be listed in dangerous
Who are you, and where are you from? New York as a state is not dangerous. Even all of the major cities have been gentrified and taken over by middle class. There are only a handful of New York projects that I would absolutely not go near. I am a 36 year old white male and recovering heroin addict and I have lived all over here my entire life. So please STOP. It is not the 70s anymore…
[…] is the second safest state in the nation. The winner was Vermont, Maine’s New England neighbor. Moreover, Maine’s schools […]
I’ve lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico for 20 years and have moved two times because of crime. Now am moving for the last time (you guessed it, because of crime) to Fort Collins, Colorado.
Bantam , colchester, enfield, bethleham, wolcott etc etc I live in CT, I’m from New Hampshire, every state has dangerous spots. You highlight all the dangerous areas of the state and ignore the other 80% of the state. I don’t like it here and prefer the northern states but your logic is skewed. The majority of Connecticut is very safe
In the top 10 dangerous places they can have earthquakes not just tornados and hurricanes.
Ha ha ha someone said why isn’t Brooklyn named…welp Brooklyn is NOT a State, it’s a borough within New York City
Well I live in Mississippi, and this is BS ain’t no way Mississippi is number one this is the county!
I think it’s fairly accurate from what I’ve experienced in my lifetime. I’m a born and raised New Yorker unfortunately. I will tell you that I feel it’s a fairly dangerous state. It’s probably changed a lot since the 70’s and 80’s, but it’s still bad. We have a lot of violence, and crime throughout N.Y. but maybe less upstate. I’m not sure. I know a lot of the boroughs are dangerous and even if they weren’t they’re disgusting. Many streets are lined with trash, graffiti… Parts of the city still smell. Most of LI seems to be dangerous, too. We have a huge heroine epidemic and drugs in general. It’s so sad.. N.Y. needs to change for the better.
I feel as if people are stating that their state is the safest.. Yet they haven’t experienced other states
The Most Dangerous State is the Internet. See above.
I live in el Dorado Arkansas for 18 years never had a tornado hit el Dorado
I totally agree! How can Maryland not be on there?! I live in Maryland & except for Baltimore our state is extremely safe! We even have decent & now diverse law enforcement. Our weather’s great–no natural disasters of ANY kind likely, unless climate change does something to change that. I’ve lived in Ill. & there was flooding, very cold temps, tornadoes, torrential rains and lots of snow. Here we usually just get one big snow a year if that. Before anyone says anything about the two floods we had; that was because Ellicott City was built in, on and around a dry river bed. If it rains too much, that place floods. No place else does though.
Illinois has cold temps, lots of snow, flooding, tornadoes and torrential rain. I grew up in southern in Ill. and then lived in northern Ill. for 28 years. So happy to be in Maryland! I think when most people think of our state, they think of Baltimore and DC & think–ugh! Urban! So untrue! Maryland is trees & farms. Actually TOO MANY trees. Sometimes you can’t see the highway signs for the trees & other foliage. I got lost that way one day. I was also daydreaming. That didn’t help.
[…] parks, and so much more. After checking several references, such as US News and Security Sales & Integration (SSI) to name a couple, I was proud to see most, and in some cases, all New England states in the […]
I live in Mississippi. Been here all my life. I know very well, no matter what stats you read, Mississippi is #1 for tornadoes, torrential rains, floods. Jackson is #1 in crime always a burglary and/or homicide every day.
I do know, if I could afford to move to another safer state, I would.
The only good thing about the south is it’s less expensive to live here than anywhere else. There are safe areas if you keep a 50 mile radius away from Jackson.
I live down in the country. We are very hospitable, will offer you a glass of our sweet tea, ( if you don’t mind the Southern accent), and most our men are redneck, drive a pickup truck, and are “shade tree” mechanics. But they always say, “Yes ma’am”, and open a door for the ladies.
Montana is full-try anywhere else!
i live in missouri sucks
Lived in NYC, Philly, Boston, Miami. Live in Maine now. Lots of mountains, lots of lakes, lots of trees and of course the ocean is here. If you don’t mind the winter ( and I don’t because it keeps the masses of people away ), this is a really great place to live ( if you can find a good job ). Relatively quiet, safe and “sane”.