Safe to say, safety comes in many forms beyond crime.
The ability to prepare well for an emergency situation is a form of security, as is the number of emergency responders available nearby. One’s financial well-being amid fear of job loss and inflation is also relative to one’s sense of safety.
A report released by the personal finance website WalletHub on Monday evaluated all 50 US states, ranking them from the most to least safe.
For each state, WalletHub examined 52 indicators across five categories: personal and residential safety, financial safety, road safety, workplace safety, and emergency preparedness.
The personal and residential safety category included factors such as crime rates, emergency responders per capita, and neighborhood watch groups per capita.
To evaluate financial safety, WalletHub looked at factors such as unemployment rates, median credit scores, identity-theft complaints per capita, and poverty rates.
The road safety ranking was determined by each state’s rates of traffic fatalities and DUIs, road quality, and share of uninsured drivers, among other factors.
WalletHub’s workplace safety ranking included examining the number of fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 full-time workers and the presence of Occupational Safety and Health Act plans.
Finally, the emergency preparedness ranking looked at states’ histories of climate disasters.
WalletHub used data from sources such as the US Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Department of Labor, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Crime Victims Center, among others.
Here are the 10 safest states in the US, and the 10 least safe states.
1. Vermont
WalletHub ranked Vermont as the safest state in the US.
Vermont’s unemployment rate is 2.7% — one of the lowest in the country — which helped it place fourth in the financial safety ranking. It’s also the state with the second-fewest reported identity theft complaints per capita.
The state’s road safety ranking was the third-highest in the US, with the second-best road quality and the fifth-fewest traffic fatalities of any state.
Its workplace safety ranking also made the top 10, placing sixth overall.
Vermont placed 16th in the personal and residential safety ranking and 11th in emergency preparedness.
2. Massachusetts
As the second-safest state in the US, Massachusetts ranked in the top 10 of nearly every category of WalletHub’s analysis.
The state placed second in the personal and residential safety ranking, with low crime rates, including the eighth-fewest thefts and fourth-fewest murders of any state, according to the WalletHub report. Massachusetts also placed second in WalletHub’s road safety ranking, eighth in financial safety, and ninth in emergency preparedness.
Its workplace safety ranking was the lowest, coming in at 23rd overall.
3. Maine
Maine’s low crime rate propelled it into the top three safest states in the US. With the fewest mass shootings between 2024 and September 2026, the third-fewest murders per capita, and the fewest aggravated assaults per capita, it ranked fourth in personal and residential safety.
Maine ranked 16th in financial safety with an unemployment rate of 3.4% and the 12th-lowest poverty rate in the US.
It ranked 8th in road safety, 21st in workplace safety, and second in emergency preparedness.
4. New Hampshire
New Hampshire was ranked the fourth-safest state in the US, but it had the highest financial safety ranking of any state.
It placed third in personal and residential safety and fourth in emergency preparedness.
New Hampshire’s road safety and workplace safety rankings were lower, at 12th and 41st, respectively.
5. Connecticut
Connecticut’s personal and residential safety ranking was the highest of any state.
It placed 21st in both the financial safety and the road safety rankings, 25th in workplace safety, and 15th in emergency preparedness.
6. Utah
Utah was ranked No. 1 in road safety, No. 3 in emergency preparedness, and No. 4 in workplace safety.
It placed 26th in financial safety and 35th in personal and residential safety.
7. Minnesota
Minnesota’s workplace safety ranked second, road safety ranked sixth, and financial safety ranked seventh. The state’s personal and residential safety and emergency preparedness both ranked 23rd.
8. Indiana
WalletHub ranked Indiana 7th in personal and residential safety, 25th in financial safety, 11th in road safety, 10th in workplace safety, and 28th in emergency preparedness.
9. Rhode Island
In Rhode Island, the state’s personal and residential safety and emergency preparedness were both ranked eighth-best in the US. It placed 20th in financial safety, 16th in road safety, and 39th in workplace safety.
10. Hawaii
Hawaii rounded out WalletHub’s list of the top 10 safest states in the US, placing 10th.
Hawaii performed well in financial safety, with the second-highest ranking of any state. Personal and residential safety ranked 20th, road safety 26th, workplace safety 22nd, and emergency preparedness 13th.
Keep reading for the bottom 10 states, which were ranked the least safe in the US.
41. Georgia
Georgia ranked 34th and 35th in personal and residential safety and road safety, respectively.
It placed 47th in financial safety and has the second-highest share of uninsured people.
42. Alabama
Alabama ranked 36th in personal and residential safety, 34th in financial safety, and 31st in road safety. It ranked 40th in emergency preparedness.
The state tied in the lowest unemployment rate with Vermont, North Dakota, Hawaii, and South Dakota.
43. Colorado
In Colorado, personal and residential safety ranked 46th among US states.
The state placed 19th in financial safety, 41st in road safety, and 38th in workplace safety.
When reached by Business Insider, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ press secretary Eric Maruyama questioned the methodology of WalletHub’s ranking, saying in an email, “It’s unclear why this ranking of safest to least safe states takes into account things like credit scores, college savings, and household emergency funds, which are very different things than public safety and crime.”
Maruyama added that Colorado is “seeing major year-over-year reductions in crime in key areas” since Polis has “signed laws to fund law enforcement, invest in proactive crime prevention strategies, and toughen penalties for auto theft.”
“From 2024 to 2025 violent crime dropped by 10.7%, aggravated assaults dropped by 9%, property crime decreased by 17.3%, and motor vehicle thefts plummeted by 36.8%,” he said. “Our work is showing results and this is the kind of data Gov. Polis looks at when assessing how to make our state safer.”
44. Missouri
Missouri ranked 46th for road safety.
It ranked 23rd for financial safety and 29th for personal and residential safety.
In the emergency preparedness category, it ranked 41st.
45. Oklahoma
In WalletHub’s study, Oklahoma ranked 32nd for personal and residential safety and 41st for financial safety.
It has the third-highest share of uninsured people and ranked 44th in workplace safety, per the report.
46. Arkansas
Arkansas ranked 44th for personal and residential safety, and 43rd in financial safety.
It has the fourth-most fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel, and is ranked 47th for assaults per capita, WalletHub reported.
47. Florida
Florida is ranked 31st for personal and residential safety.
The Sunshine State ranked 45th in financial safety, 46th in workplace safety, and 47th in emergency preparedness.
48. Texas
Texas is ranked 40th in personal and residential safety, financial safety, and road safety.
It ranked 48th in emergency preparedness in WalletHub’s report and has the highest share of uninsured people.
49. Louisiana
Louisiana ranked 49th in financial safety and emergency preparedness. It’s ranked 43rd for workplace safety.
WalletHub’s rankings also show that Louisiana is tied with New Jersey and Wyoming for the most law-enforcement employees per capita, and the state has the third-most assaults per capita.
50. Mississippi
Ranked the least safe state in the US by WalletHub, Mississippi also ranked the lowest in financial, road, work, and emergency preparedness safety.
For personal and residential safety, however, it ranked in the middle: The state is the 22nd safest.
Mississippi has the highest fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, and it’s tied with New Mexico for the second-lowest share of people with rainy-day funds.
Per WalletHub, the state tied with Florida, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Louisiana for the highest total loss amount from climate disasters per capita.
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