Gun crime, shootings, murders, assault… it may seem that the whole country is sinking in crime these days. But that’s not the case and there are still beautiful and safe places that you can choose to live in. How do we know? Because we did the math.

We wanted to find out for ourselves how safe or dangerous each state in the US is. So we crunched the latest data available to paint a complete picture of crime in America. To ensure a comprehensive ranking that covers all aspects of serious crime as defined by the FBI, we looked at statistics for homicide, murder, manslaughter, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and motor vehicle crime.

Here’s a visual, easy-to-read and up-to-date crime heat map of America. More pretty infographics and tables can also be found below.

Main Findings

The 5 safest states are:

New Hampshire Maine New Jersey Vermont New York

The 5 most unsafe states are:

New Mexico Alaska Louisiana Arkansas Washington

Insights:

New Hampshire is the safest state in the US overall, coming in 3rd for least violent crime, and 1st for least property crime.

in the US overall, coming in 3rd for least violent crime, and 1st for least property crime. However, New Hampshire has a surprisingly poor ranking of just 32 for rapes.

has a surprisingly poor ranking of just 32 for rapes. Ohio best represents the average crime rate (2898 per 100,000 people).

best represents the average crime rate (2898 per 100,000 people). New Mexico is the most unsafe state in the US, coming in second-last for violent crime and last for property crime. Only Alaska beat New Mexico in violent crime.

in the US, coming in second-last for violent crime and last for property crime. Only Alaska beat New Mexico in violent crime. New Mexico also tops the charts for both burglary and vehicle crime.

also tops the charts for both burglary and vehicle crime. Louisiana has the highest murder rate, whereas New Hampshire has the lowest.

has the highest murder rate, whereas has the lowest. Alaska is the most unsafe state for women, whereas New Jersey is the safest for women.

is the most unsafe state for women, whereas is the safest for women. Alaska tops the charts once again for aggravated assault, whereas Maine is the least violent.

tops the charts once again for aggravated assault, whereas is the least violent. Robberies are 21 times more frequent in Nevada than Wyoming which has the lowest robberies per capita (per person).

Safest States to live in – Ranking

Please note that the overall ranking is based on the total number of crimes per capita (per person). So for example New Hampshire might have worse violent crime than Maine, but overall the crime rate per capita is still lower than that of Maine’s.

State Overall Rank - Serious Crime Total Serious Crime per 100,000 population Rank - Murder Rank - Rape Rank - Robbery Rank - Aggravated Assault Rank - Burglary Rank - Motor Theft New Hampshire 1 1711 1 33 8 4 3 3 Maine 2 1770 2 6 4 1 5 2 New Jersey 3 1790 23 1 34 6 1 9 Vermont 4 1856 6 4 3 2 9 1 New York 5 1922 17 8 39 24 4 4 Massachusetts 6 1938 4 7 25 31 2 7 Idaho 7 1975 15 30 2 14 7 8 Connecticut 8 2035 7 2 22 7 6 23 Pennsylvania 9 2059 26 13 31 16 8 5 Virginia 10 2077 31 10 15 5 11 6 Rhode Island 11 2138 12 25 13 11 12 14 Wyoming 12 2202 18 15 1 21 15 10 Wisconsin 13 2239 22 12 29 18 13 20 Michigan 14 2369 34 48 21 37 10 24 Minnesota 15 2376 3 29 18 8 20 16 Iowa 16 2377 8 23 9 23 18 17 South Dakota 17 2399 16 44 7 40 14 21 West Virginia 18 2405 24 16 10 34 17 11 Kentucky 19 2422 32 18 23 3 19 28 Illinois 20 2485 47 20 46 28 16 15 North Dakota 21 2547 5 34 5 17 22 35 Nebraska 22 2554 11 42 11 19 21 33 Maryland 23 2757 45 5 49 30 23 22 Ohio 24 2878 30 38 36 9 28 19 Indiana 25 2994 36 19 38 27 26 27 California 26 2998 25 14 47 32 24 49 Mississippi 27 3049 46 31 26 12 37 12 Montana 28 3052 19 43 6 35 29 37 Kansas 29 3076 21 35 16 33 30 30 Colorado 30 3083 20 46 17 22 27 44 North Carolina 31 3110 38 3 30 26 34 13 Florida 32 3117 28 17 33 36 31 25 Texas 33 3194 27 37 44 29 33 34 Utah 34 3194 9 40 12 10 40 41 Oregon 35 3229 14 27 14 13 39 43 Nevada 36 3265 44 45 50 45 25 48 Delaware 37 3275 33 9 48 41 36 18 Hawaii 38 3302 10 32 19 20 35 45 Missouri 39 3319 49 26 37 42 32 40 Georgia 40 3402 37 11 42 25 44 36 Oklahoma 41 3433 35 41 27 38 41 42 Arizona 42 3449 29 36 35 39 43 38 Alabama 43 3480 48 22 32 44 42 32 Tennessee 44 3487 42 24 41 48 38 29 South Carolina 45 3746 43 39 28 43 46 39 Washington 46 3796 13 28 24 15 48 47 Arkansas 47 3820 41 47 20 47 47 31 Louisiana 48 3864 50 21 43 46 49 26 Alaska 49 4157 40 50 40 50 45 46 New Mexico 50 4640 39 49 45 49 50 50

Violent Crime

Violent crime includes, murder, crimes against women, robbery and aggravated assault.

Murder

Crimes against Women (Rape)

Robbery

Aggravated Assault

Property Crime

Property crime includes burglary/theft and motor vehicle thefts.

Burglary/Theft

Motor vehicle theft

Source and Methodology

Our source for this analysis is the 2016 serious crimes data published by the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

In the info-graphics above, we combined burglary and larceny-theft together under the single heading of burglary/theft as they are very similar.

Conclusion

Crime rates vary wildly across the country as our analysis shows above. But armed with the facts, you can make an informed choice about how to best protect yourself and your family.

Whether you are living in one of the top or bottom-ranked states, its always good to take proper security measures such as a burglar alarm and security camera system.