Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas are the three most dangerous states in the U.S., a study has concluded.

These are the findings that the personal finance website WalletHub published in a new analysis which looked at safety across America from various different perspectives including financial safety and emergency preparedness.

Newsweek contacted the Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas governor's offices by email to comment on this story outside of normal business hours.

Why It Matters

Cracking down on crime has emerged as a major priority under President Donald Trump's second administration. He has targeted various cities and in August said that Washington D.C. had "become one of the most dangerous cities in the World."

He has authorized the use of federal troops in several U.S. cities including D.C, and Chicago, arguing the troops are needed to stop violence. He is also attempting to send the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, following protests near an ICE building over the weekend, but has come up against legal challenges.

WalletHub's findings, though about states not cities, put Trump's statements about crime into context and show areas in which states can improve.

What To Know

WalletHub analyzed all 50 states and the District of Columbia using 52 key indicators of safety which they grouped into the following five categories: personal and residential safety, financial safety, road safety, workplace safety and emergency preparedness. The analysts measured each state's performance in each category and indicator using a weighted scoring system which assessed the relative importance of each indicator. They then determined each state's average across these metrics.

With a score of 36.2 out of 100, with higher scores indicating a better safety rate, Louisiana was ranked as the least safe state in the U.S.

Next came Mississippi, which received a score of 36.77. Texas was ranked the third least safe state with a score of 38.14, and Florida came fourth with 38.67 points. The fifth most dangerous state was Arkansas, which received 40.16 points. This is in line with the website's findings last year, which revealed similar rankings.

Conversely, WalletHub found that the safest state in the U.S. was Vermont (67.22 points). Massachusetts was second (66.56), New Hampshire third (65.76) and Maine came fourth (64.69). The fifth safest state was Utah, which had a total score of 62.88 points.

Illinois and Oregon, two states Trump has claimed are dangerous were ranked as the 36th and 26th safest state, respectively.

WalletHub's findings come after an August study by Whitley Law Firm found that Louisiana was also the most dangerous state in which to live and raise a family. The personal injury law firm analyzed 26 different safety factors among themes like violent and sexual crimes, air, water and road quality, as well as birth complications.

What People Are Saying

Speaking to Newsweek, Michael S. Scott, clinical professor at the School of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Arizona State University, said: "Safety (and its opposite, danger) comes in a variety of forms. Some forms are shared by people across an entire state—such as risks of wildfires here in the West or hurricanes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts—but many forms of danger, including crime, are not shared equally across a state, or even a city: they are shared across people within a neighborhood, and sometimes are unique to people living in a particular household. That is, most risks and safety features are specific to a relatively small geographical area."

Scott highlighted how specific measures taken by individual states can have an effect, such as stricter gun-control laws lowering gun homicides and suicides, and well-funded mental health services reducing risks from untreated mental illness. .

Another measure he noted was that adequate funding for transportation departments has the effect of improving road design, thereby lowering crash deaths and injuries. In April, the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its early estimates of traffic fatalities in 2024, It projected that nearly 40,000 people died in the U.S. in traffic crashes.

"There are more such policy areas, but the larger point is that safety is largely a product of sensible policy, at all government levels," Scott said.

Chip Lupo, a WalletHub analyst said: “The safest states in America protect their residents from harm in a multitude of different ways, from keeping crime rates low and maintaining safe roadways to having strong economies and job markets that prevent people from falling into dangerous financial situations.

"They have high levels of occupational safety and disaster preparedness, too. In addition, states are made safer by efforts that individual residents take, such as forming a neighborhood watch or working in firefighting and EMT jobs at high rates.”

What Happens Next

The safety of different states will likely fluctuate over the course of months and years.

Meanwhile, Trump said on Monday he would consider using the Insurrection Act—an 1807 law—to deploy the military after a federal judge blocked him from sending National Guard troops to Portland on Sunday.