Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas Are America’s Most Unsafe States

Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas are America’s most unsafe states, and leafy Vermont is its safest, according to new research covering everything from crime and natural disasters to the number of uninsured drivers on the road.

The study by WalletHub assessed all 50 states on 53 measures of safety — broadly covering crime rates, natural disasters, Covid-19 vaccination rates and economic indicators, like levels of unemployment and homelessness.

It comes as public safety and law and order remain top issues for voters in November’s midterm elections, and soft-on-crime policies and calls to defund police could hurt Democrats in crime-affected areas.

Topping the list of safe areas were such Democrat-leaning states as Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, according to researchers from the personal finance website and data analysis firm.

At the bottom of the list were Republican-leaning Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas.

Researchers uncovered stark contrasts between America’s safest and most dangerous states.

Louisiana, for example, has 15.8 murders and non-negligent manslaughters for every 100,000 people — a significant 18 times higher than the 0.88 rate in New Hampshire, the lowest in the nation.

Massachusetts scores best for thefts, with only 10.97 per 1,000 residents. At the other end of the spectrum, light-fingered Louisiana has nearly three times as many such incidents, with 29.65 per 1,000 residents.

For advocates of having more cops on the street, New Jersey has 557 law enforcers per 100,000 residents, nearly three times as many as America’s low-cop state, Washington, with 197 per 100,000 residents.

‘Certain states keep their residents safer than others,’ said researchers.

But safety is hard for people to get their heads around, they added.

Many people may be more worried by guns and car crashes than Covid-19, even though the number of pandemic deaths this year, 204,000, is far higher than motor vehicle deaths (21,000) and non-suicide shooting deaths (15,200) combined.

‘How worried we feel about a threat isn’t necessarily proportional to how many people it affects,’ said the study.

Researchers used data from various federal government agencies, think tanks, and media outlets.

Rising crime rates and public safety have become a key focus of campaigning ahead of the November 8 midterm elections, which will determine which party controls Congress for the rest of President Joe Biden’s term.

Republicans have run television adverts in Pennsylvania slamming Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman as ‘dangerously liberal on crime’, and against Mandela Barnes, a Wisconsin senate candidate, as a ‘defund the police’ Democrat.

New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, who faces a tight re-election race against Republican challenger Lee Zeldin, this week announced $28 million in funding for tackling gun violence, increasing opportunities for youth, and strengthening public safety in the state.

Murder and violent crime rates have dropped markedly from highs in the early 1990s, but started ticking up again during the pandemic.

Homicides fell by 2.4 percent and rapes fell by 5 percent in the first six months of 2022, but overall violent crime rose by 4.2 percent, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, which covers scores of forces across North America.

The FBI’s national crime tracking system this month reported an estimated 4.3 percent rise in murders in 2021 and a negligible 1 percent decrease in overall violent crime — but data from such key cities as New York and Los Angeles was missing.

Columbia, Maryland, was recently ranked as the safest city in America, and St. Louis, Missouri, as its most dangerous, in a survey that measured everything from the threat of wildfires to the number of uninsured drivers on the road.

The study assessed 182 major cities on 42 measures of safety — broadly covering crime rates, natural disasters, Covid-19 vaccination rates and economic indicators, like levels of unemployment and homelessness.

Topping the list was Columbia, Maryland, a suburban area between Washington DC and Baltimore that is home to some 100,000 people and often scores well for quality of life, opportunity and relatively low crime rates.