Most Dangerous US States Might Surprise You

VOA News

Alaska is by far the most dangerous state in the nation, according to the business website 24/7 Wall Street.

The most sparsely populated of all U.S. states, Alaska has the highest rates of rape and aggravated assault in the nation. In 2017, there were 117 rapes and 575 aggravated assaults for every 100,000 residents. Both of those statistics are more than double the corresponding national rates.

Last year’s murder rate in Alaska was up 20 percent over the previous year.

New Mexico comes in at No. 2. There were 784 violent crimes — murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — for every 100,000 New Mexico residents in 2017. That is way above the national rate of 394 incidents per 100,000 people.

With aggravated assault numbers that are nearly double the national rate, Tennessee ranks as the nation’s third most dangerous state. Most of the state’s violent crime is concentrated in urban areas, where the violent crime rate is more than 1,000 incidents per 100,000 residents.

Louisiana and Nevada round out the top five most dangerous states, according to the study. While violent crime declined overall in the United States in 2017, the crime rate actually went up in some of the most dangerous states.

To reach its conclusions, 24/7 Wall Street assessed data from the FBI, Department of Justice and the Census Bureau. Only cities with populations of at least 10,000 were considered.

On the other end of the spectrum, the least dangerous state is Maine, according to the report, with 121 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.

Other states that were deemed the least dangerous in America include Vermont, New Hampshire, Virginia and Kentucky.