Safest and Most Dangerous States in the U.S. 2021: Annual Ranking Updated
The 2021 edition of WalletHub’s annual report compares the 50 states across 53 key safety indicators to determine which are the safest and least safe.
Personal-finance website WalletHub has released this year’s edition of its “Safest States in America” report.
In order to determine its rankings, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 53 key metrics grouped into five different categories: personal and residential safety; financial safety; road safety; workplace safety; and emergency preparedness.
A new metric that was added this year is the percentage of residents who are fully vaccinated from COVID-19, which falls under the personal and residential safety category.
Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest level of safety. You can view the full details of the report and its methodology here.
The Safest States in America
Once again, all six New England states ranked in the top 10 for safest states. This year, Vermont over took Maine as the safest state in America. Maine is now in second place while Minnesota slips from third to fourth safest. The top 10 safest states remain largely the same as last year, except for Iowa and Wyoming dropping out of the top 10. New entrants Washington and New Jersey come in at ninth and 10th respectively.
- Vermont
- Maine
- New Hampshire
- Minnesota
- Utah
- Connecticut
- Massachusetts
- Rhode Island
- Washington
- New Jersey
The Most Dangerous States in America
The trend of the Southern U.S. being ranked as the least safe area in the country continues. Louisiana is now considered the least safe sate in America, swapping places with Mississippi. Those two are followed by Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma as the least safe states in the country. Tennessee and Montana have replaced Georgia and South Carolina in the top 10 least safe states for 2021.
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Texas
- Arkansas
- Oklahoma
- Montana
- Alabama
- Florida
- Missouri
- Tennessee
Click here for a slideshow comparing statistics such as assaults per capita and law enforcement numbers between the safest and most dangerous states.
Though this data doesn’t reflect solely physical safety, security professionals can look at the specific score of the personal and residential safety category to get an idea of what states are likely in need of better home security.
Does this data correlate with your state? Let us know in the comments!
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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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This is such a biased report. Anyone with a brain knows that the Liberal run states are way more dangerous than the Conservative states. Its funny how the states that everyone is moving to are the worst. What a joke.
Facts tend to hurt sometimes.