WASHINGTON – Wallethub has released its 2025 list of the safest states in the U.S., placing Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire at the top of the list.
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Maine and Utah were the fourth and fifth safest states. The least safe states were Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Florida and Arkansas.
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To identify the safest states, WalletHub said it analyzed all 50 states using 52 key indicators of safety, grouped into five categories.
At the top
Vermont ranks first overall, with a strong showing in neighborhood safety. Nearly 75% of parents say they live in safe neighborhoods, the fourth-highest rate in the country, according to WalletHub. The state also ranks seventh for neighborhood watch groups per capita. Vermont has the 15th fewest aggravated assaults, 17th fewest murders and nonnegligent manslaughters and 24th fewest thefts per capita.
Source: WalletHub
Financial safety is another strong area. Vermont has a 2.3% unemployment rate and a low rate of seriously underwater mortgages. It also has the second-fewest non-business bankruptcy filings and identity theft complaints per capita.
Massachusetts ranks second, largely due to strong financial security. It boasts the third-best job security rate and the fourth-highest rate of job growth. The state also has the 11th lowest percentage of unbanked residents and the sixth fewest non-business bankruptcies per capita.
New Hampshire ranks third, with particularly low levels of violent crime. It had the fewest mass shootings and the lowest murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rate from June 2023 to June 2025. The state also reports the second fewest aggravated assaults and thefts per capita.
Key metrics
WalletHub also listed the states with the most and fewest law enforcement employees per capita. Tied for most were New Jersey, Wyoming and Louisiana, followed by New York and Tennessee. Washington state had the fewest.
Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut are shown to have the least assaults per capita, with Alaska and New Mexico having the most. Delaware was found to have the lowest incidences of bullying; Alaska had the most.
Ranking methodology
The evaluation was conducted based on more than 50 relevant metrics divided into five key dimensions, according to WalletHub:
- Personal & Residential Safety
- Financial Safety
- Road Safety
- Workplace Safety
- Emergency Preparedness
Personal and residential safety were graded most heavily by murders and non-negligible homicides per capita, assaults per capita and forcible rapes per capita, along with 16 other metrics primarily related to crime. Also included in the metrics were the number of law enforcement employees, active firefighters and emergency medical personnel per capita.
All metrics were weighted equally in the financial safety category, which included unemployment rate, median credit score and poverty rate. Road safety metrics included fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel, pedestrian and pedal cyclist fatality rates per capita and DUIs per capita.
Strongly weighted metrics in the workplace safety category included presence of Occupational Safety and Health Act plans and fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 full-time workers. Emergency preparedness was scored based on the number of disasters and loss caused by natural disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage between 1980 and 2024.
Safest states ranked
- Vermont
- Massachusetts
- New Hampshire
- Maine
- Utah
- Connecticut
- Hawaii
- Minnesota
- Rhode Island
- Wyoming
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Maryland
- Virginia
- Washington
- New Jersey
- New York
- Idaho
- Wisconsin
- Kentucky
- Arizona
- North Carolina
- Delaware
- Michigan
- North Dakota
- Oregon
- New Mexico
- Alaska
- Ohio
- Nevada
- Pennsylvania
- Nebraska
- Kansas
- West Virginia
- South Dakota
- Illinois
- South Carolina
- California
- Montana
- Tennessee
- Missouri
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Colorado
- Oklahoma
- Arkansas
- Florida
- Texas
- Mississippi
- Louisiana
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