Dangerous States

Scott Evans•23 Jul 2024

Scott Evans23 Jul 2024

When considering where to live, work or visit, being aware of dangerous places can keep you safer, while America is the land of the free, and home of the brave some of its States are much more hazardous than others.

With this in mind, Self storage company Pink Storage compared all 50 States across 24 key metrics in 2 categories relating to personal safety and financial safety. Data ranges from violent crime, driving fatalities, and drug overdoses to identity theft.

Main Findings

With the exception of "Rank" all columns in the table reflect the relative rank of that state, where a rank of 100 represents the worst score for that category. Overall Rank 1 = Most dangerous State.

Most Dangerous States Overall

Arkansas
Louisiana
Tennessee
South Carolina
Nevada
Missouri
Texas
North Carolina
New Mexico

Safest States in the U.S. Overall

Rhode Island
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
New Jersey
Maine
Connecticut
Vermont
Minnesota
Hawaii
New York

States with the highest number of reported mass shooting incidents (1982 - 2023)

California (26)
Florida (13)
Texas (13)
Colorado (8)
Washington (7)
Pennsylvania (6)

States with the highest rates of reported homicides (per 100,000 people)

Mississippi (20.7)
Louisiana (19.8)
Alabama (14.9)
New Mexico (14.5)
Missouri (12.8)

States with the lowest rates of reported homicides (per 100,000 people)

New Hampshire (1.8)
Rhode Island (2)
Utah (2.2)
Massachusetts (2.5)
Maine (2.6)

States with the highest rates of reported sexual assaults (per 100,000 people)

Alaska (134)
Arkansas (75)
Michigan (64)
Colorado (62)
Wyoming (62)

States with the lowest rates of reported sexual assaults (per 100,000 people)

New Jersey (16)
Connecticut (18)
Delaware (21)
Massachusetts (29.03)
Alabama (29.44)

States with the highest rates of reported drug overdoses (per 100,000 people)

West Virginia (80.9)
Tennessee (56)
Delaware (55.3)
Louisiana (54.5)
Maine (54.3)

States with the lowest rates of reported drug overdoses (per 100,000 people)

South Dakota (11.3)
Nebraska (11.8)
Iowa (15.3)
Texas (18.2)
Hawaii (18.6)

States with the highest number of firefighters (per 100,000)

New Hampshire (181)
Massachusetts (168)
Maine (164)
Rhode Island (157)
North Carolina (156)

States with the fewest number of firefighters (per 100,000)

Pennsylvania (34.02)
Hawaii (34.14)
South Dakota (51)
New York (52.06)
Nebraska (52.56)

States with the highest rates of reported deaths caused by fires (Deaths per 1000 fires)

Alaska (7.7)
Wisconsin (5.4)
West Virginia (4.3)
Ohio (4.2)
North Dakota (4.1)

States with the lowest rates of reported deaths caused by fires (Deaths per 1000 fires)

Oregon (0.5)
Arizona (0.6)
Rhode Island (0.7)
Maryland (0.8)
New York (0.8)
Hawaii (1)

States with the highest number of drivers who have admitted to driving after having too much to drink

Louisiana (4.9%)
Iowa (4.6%)
Nebraska (4.1%)
Montana (4%)
Wisconsin (3.8%)

States with the fewest number of drivers who have admitted to driving after having too much to drink

New Mexico (1.3%)
Maryland, New York, West Virginia (1.4%)
New Jersey (1.6%)
Maine (1.7%)
Arizona, Tennessee (1.9%)

States with the highest number of reported fatal crashes (per 100,000 people)

Mississippi (23.9)
Wyoming (23)
New Mexico (22.1)
Arkansas (21.1)
South Carolina (20.7)

States with the fewest number of reported fatal crashes (per 100,000 people)

Rhode Island (4.8)
New York (6)
Massachusetts (6.2)
New Jersey (7.4)
Minnesota (7.8)

States with the highest rates of infant mortality (per 1000 births)

Mississippi (9.11)
South Dakota (7.77)
Arkansas (7.67)
Delaware (7.49)
Louisiana (7.37)

States with the lowest rates of infant mortality (per 1000 births)

Massachusetts (3.32)
New Hampshire (3.48)
New Jersey (3.57)
Rhode Island (3.9)
California (4.11)

States with the highest rates of firearm-related deaths (per 100,000 people)

Mississippi (29.6)
Louisiana (28.2)
New Mexico (27.3)
Alabama (25.5)
Missouri (24.2)

States with the lowest rates of firearm-related deaths (per 100,000 people)

Rhode Island (3.1)
Massachusetts (3.7)
Hawaii (4.5)
New Jersey (5)
New York (5.3)

States with the highest levels of reported violent crime (per 100,000 people)

New Mexico (780)
Alaska (759)
Arkansas (640)
Louisiana (630)
Tennessee (615)

States with the lowest levels of reported violent crime (per 100,000 people)

Maine (102)
New Hampshire (124)
Connecticut (150)
Rhode Island (171)
Wyoming (201)

States with the highest number of registered sex offenders (per 100,000 people)

Oregon (772)
Arkansas (606)
Alaska (454)
South Dakota (448)
Wisconsin (447)

States with the fewest number of registered sex offenders (per 100,000 people)

New Jersey (50)
Massachusetts (81)
Washington (90)
Maryland (106)
Rhode Island (129)

States with the highest levels of reported poverty

Louisiana (19.5%)
Mississippi (19.2%)
New Mexico (17.7%)
West Virginia (16.8%)
Alabama (16.3%)

States with the lowest levels of reported poverty

New Hampshire (7.4%)
Utah (8.7%)
Minnesota (9.3%)
Colorado (9.7%)
Washington (9.9%)

States with the highest levels of reported identity theft (per 100,000 people)

Georgia (457)
Florida (438)
Nevada (404)
Connecticut (384)
Delaware (359)

States with the lowest levels of reported identity theft (per 100,000 people)

South Dakota (94)
Vermont (97)
Wyoming (106)
West Virginia (110)
Alaska (114)

Scott Evans of Storage Company Pink Storage comments on the findings:

"Whether you are moving home or just visiting for a while, knowing where in the U.S. is dangerous could help you to make that decision."

"Everyone will have different criteria for relocating or vacationing, but most people will want to go to a safe area. Our study focuses on both personal and financial safety both of which should be considered when going to a new area in the States."

"By looking at our study, you are able to see that certain States are more dangerous than others in the different categories. Those planning to start and raise a family may be more concerned with infant mortality rates and registered sex offenders in the area, while sole female travellers may be more concerned with sexual assaults and violent crime."

Methodology

To determine the most and least dangerous States in the U.S. Pink Storage compared the 50 states across two categories: 1) Personal Safety, 2) Financial Safety.

We evaluated the two categories using 24 relevant metrics that were equally weighted. These included mass shootings, murders, rapes, assaults, overdoses, firefighters per capita, fire casualties, suicides, fatal crashes, drunk driver prevalence, workplace deaths, infant mortality, violent crime, property crime, registered sex offenders, police per capita, climate disasters, people without health insurance, unemployment rates, poverty, debt rate, identity fraud and all fraud.

Finally, we determined each state's weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used these scores to rank-order our sample.

Data used to create this ranking were collected from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, FBI Crime Data Explorer, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Fire Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Census Bureau, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Federal Trade Commission.

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If you would like to use this data in any form, please link back to this webpage.

Pink Storage

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