TEXAS — According to new analysis from WalletHub, Texas is one of the most unsafe states in the country. The five main determining factors were, according to the article, “1) Personal & Residential Safety, 2) Financial Safety, 3) Road Safety, 4) Workplace Safety, and 5) Emergency Preparedness.”
Texas placed 48 out of the 50 states on the list for safety. The only two states deemed to be less safe were Mississippi and Louisiana. The safest state in the country is Vermont followed by three other New England states: Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. The top five is rounded out by Utah.
Among the five factors were 52 individual metrics, including such things as terrorist attacks, hate crimes, unemployment and natural disasters. Workplace safety also made up several metrics.
One of the metrics used to deliniate the rankings was the amount of uninsured people among the state population, which is the one place where Texas came in dead last.
According to WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo, “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.”