Tennessee ranked angriest, most hateful state in nation

After compiling a variety of data sources, WalletHub has released its list of the most sinful states in America — and Tennessee made it to the top 10.

The financial help website says the Volunteer State is the sixth most sinful state overall, but is ranked No. 1 in "anger and hatred" in a breakdown of specific sins.

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In addition to anger and hatred, the study ranked states for jealousy, excesses and vice, greed, lust, vanity and laziness.

Tennessee was ranked third worst for excesses and vice and was in the nation's top 20 ranking for almost all of the other sin categories examined.

The study listed Florida as the nation's overall most sinful state, followed by California, Nevada, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Illinois, Michigan, Arkansas and Louisiana.

To Tennessee's south, Alabama came in 11th overall.

In studying the costs associated with specific sins — or habits — in each state, WalletHub used a total of 38 indicators to rank the states.

Those indicators included crime, health, education and real estate statistics, among other data that came from government agencies like the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, FBI, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; private companies like PornHub and TransUnion; and nonprofits like the Southern Poverty Law Center, Annie E. Casey Foundation and others.

For example, to determine the angriest and most hateful states, WalletHub looked at, per capita, violent crimes, sex offenders, hate groups and hate crime incidents, in addition to the number of mass shootings and elder abuse complaints.

WalletHub's results were released the same day as the Southern Poverty Law Center's annual Year In Hate report, which listed 37 active hate groups in Tennessee, including neo-Nazi, KKK, racist skinhead, white nationalist, black nationalist and other extremist groups.

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.