Today, we’ll report on the safest states in America. Using the latest FBI data on violent and property crime, we identified the safest states in the United States.
Odds are likely that you, or someone you know, has not been the victim of a crime in the past year. Despite what you hear on the news, America has been incredibly safe over the past two decades. It’s just a matter of determining which states are more crime-free than others.
We accounted for both violent crime and property crime in each state, giving us a well-rounded approach to living conditions. The safest states are the best states in America to raise kids and excellent places to retire.
The states we’re about to mention are pretty safe overall. We ended up with this list of the ten safest states.
On the map
The safest states in America, mapped
Source: HomeSnacks
And where’s the safest state in America? Is it much of a surprise to hear that it’s New Hampshire?
It’s official: just about the entire New England area north of New York State is safe. In the last reporting year, there were only 14 murders for the whole year, which is astoundingly low. The leading state, California, saw nearly 100 times that number.
People in New Hampshire live in small towns and rural areas but are quite educated, and most have great jobs. The schools are highly rated, too. These factors also play a part in making New Hampshire a safe place.
Mostly, you only have to worry about idiots who text and drive in the snow. Seems like the biggest crime here is NOT being an annoying Patriots fan.
If you live in New Hampshire, you’ve certainly got it made.
Even if you’ve never been to Maine, you’re probably not surprised it’s our second safest state to live in America. Maine is the place to be if you want to avoid murder, rape, and other violent crimes. The colder weather may chill people out.
In Maine, there were less than .001 violent crimes per capita in the last reporting year. To put that crime rate into perspective, there were .008 violent crimes per person in Alaska.
Of great importance to Mainers’ strong sense of community with the motto, “What happens to you, happens to me.” Good and bad. They’re all in it together, which really helps keep crime to a minimum.
Making our way through the northeast, we come to Rhode Island.
Sure, it’s a small state, and the number of property crimes is higher than the other states on this list, but overall, you could find much more dangerous places to live.
Rhode Island only saw 1012 robberies over the year, about 1.5 a day. Does that make you jealous of where you live?
Many of Rhode Island’s safest cities report no more than two murders a year, and 80% of Rhode Island’s cities reported no murders. And robberies are limited to just a tiny part of the state for the most part.
Our next stop on our safe tour of America brings us to Wyoming.
Sure, there are only about a half million people in the Cowboy State, and people are spaced out much more than in places like Florida and California. But look at New Mexico. There’s some wide open spaces there, too, and that’s the most dangerous place in the nation.
Only 798 people were the victim of an aggravated assault in Wyoming. This means there’s an excellent chance you can walk around at night here without having to watch your back. In fact, you might have a better chance of being trampled by a bison than beaten by a mugger.
In Wyoming, people don’t steal. It’s a Wyoming thing. Unless you want to take some leftovers from a neighborhood trash can. Most Wyomingans would be cool with that.
Right next door to Rhode Island is the safe city of Connecticut.
Most Americans might think of Connecticut as a wealthy place, and for the most part, they’d be right. Does a relatively affluent group of people commit less crime? Apparently so.
There were only 4311 reported robberies in Connecticut for the entire last reporting year, which is well below the national average. Additionally, Connecticut saw 8638 reported car thefts that same year, too.
That’s crazy low.
Is it a surprise that Idaho is the sixth safest state to live in the US of A?
Probably not.
Idaho might get a knock for being a relatively boring place, but talk to the people that live there — when it’s quiet, it’s safe. Idaho saw only about 3 murders a month, on average, which is far less than the national average. Additionally, there were only 2326 burglaries in the last reporting year, which might sound like a lot, but only averages to about 125 a week for the entire state.
In lots of parts of Idaho, people don’t even bother to lock their doors at all. Not too long ago, Boise was named as the 9th safest city in the entire world. If your cow shows up missing in Idaho, it’s probably just at the neighbors house.
That sure puts things into perspective.
This stop on our safe tour of America brings us to Kentucky. I’m sure many people in the South might be like, “That’s crazy,” but when you look at the data, it’s hard to argue against.
You’d have to drive to Iowa or Pennsylvania to get to a safer place outside Kentucky. Kentuckians are a pretty lucky group of people, seeing as how they rank tenth for the number of robberies, car thefts, and identity thefts each year.
Only 10377 cars were stolen in the state, and only 8881 robberies occurred here in the last reporting year. While it’s sad that this is a low number, for America, it is.
The verdict
So what’s the safest state in America for 2026?
What’s the safest state in America for 2026? It turns out New Hampshire is the safest state in the country. We can’t measure how relaxed everyone feels, but we can calculate how many violent and property crimes happen per capita. And in those categories, New Hampshire takes the cake.
Read below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your state ranked. Or check out more on the safest cities in America.
Saturday Night Science
How We Determined The Safest States In The US For 2026
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the safest states is simply the amount of crime.
However, one statistic only partially encompasses what it means to be one of the ‘safest states.’ So we used Saturday Night Science to compare this set of criteria from the most recent FBI crime data:
- Violent Crimes Per Capita
- Property Crimes Per Capita
We ranked each state from 1 to 50 for each criterion, with one being the safest. We then averaged all the rankings for a state into a ‘Safe Index’ with the lowest overall Safe Index crowned the ‘Safest State In The US For 2026.’ We updated this article for 2026. This list is our eleventh time ranking the safest states in America.
You can learn more about the top ten below or skip to the end to see the rankings for every state, including which states are the most dangerous.
The full plate
All 50 states, ranked by safety
Click any column to sort. Search by state name.
| Rank | State | Safe Index | Population | Violent crime per capita | Property crime per capita | Total crime per capita | Murder per capita |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Hampshire | 2.00 | 1,409,032 | 110 | 918 | 1,028 | 1 |
| 2 | Maine | 3.00 | 1,405,012 | 100 | 1,142 | 1,242 | 2 |
| 3 | Rhode Island | 3.50 | 1,112,308 | 154 | 1,032 | 1,186 | 2 |
| 4 | Wyoming | 6.50 | 587,618 | 203 | 1,232 | 1,435 | 2 |
| 5 | Connecticut | 7.50 | 3,675,069 | 136 | 1,366 | 1,502 | 2 |
| 6 | Idaho | 7.50 | 2,001,619 | 231 | 736 | 967 | 2 |
| 7 | Kentucky | 8.50 | 4,588,372 | 213 | 1,350 | 1,563 | 6 |
| 8 | Mississippi | 8.50 | 2,943,045 | 210 | 1,363 | 1,574 | 7 |
| 9 | Iowa | 12.00 | 3,241,488 | 243 | 1,297 | 1,540 | 2 |
| 10 | West Virginia | 12.00 | 1,769,979 | 249 | 1,162 | 1,411 | 5 |
| 11 | New Jersey | 13.00 | 9,500,851 | 218 | 1,427 | 1,645 | 2 |
| 12 | Wisconsin | 13.50 | 5,960,975 | 279 | 1,154 | 1,433 | 4 |
| 13 | Utah | 14.00 | 3,503,613 | 230 | 1,409 | 1,638 | 3 |
| 14 | Massachusetts | 14.50 | 7,136,171 | 315 | 1,112 | 1,427 | 2 |
| 15 | Virginia | 15.50 | 8,811,195 | 218 | 1,570 | 1,788 | 5 |
| 16 | Pennsylvania | 17.00 | 13,078,751 | 246 | 1,435 | 1,681 | 5 |
| 17 | Florida | 18.00 | 23,372,215 | 267 | 1,420 | 1,687 | 4 |
| 18 | Indiana | 18.50 | 6,924,275 | 313 | 1,379 | 1,692 | 6 |
| 19 | Nebraska | 18.50 | 2,005,465 | 221 | 1,627 | 1,847 | 2 |
| 20 | Vermont | 18.50 | 648,493 | 219 | 1,627 | 1,847 | 3 |
| 21 | Ohio | 21.00 | 11,883,304 | 294 | 1,551 | 1,845 | 5 |
| 22 | Minnesota | 21.00 | 5,793,151 | 257 | 1,606 | 1,863 | 3 |
| 23 | Hawaii | 22.00 | 1,446,146 | 218 | 1,947 | 2,165 | 2 |
| 24 | North Dakota | 23.00 | 796,568 | 254 | 1,682 | 1,936 | 3 |
| 25 | Alabama | 24.50 | 5,157,699 | 360 | 1,565 | 1,925 | 9 |
| 26 | Illinois | 26.00 | 12,710,158 | 289 | 1,715 | 2,004 | 6 |
| 27 | Georgia | 26.50 | 11,180,878 | 326 | 1,675 | 2,001 | 7 |
| 28 | South Dakota | 26.50 | 924,669 | 362 | 1,586 | 1,948 | 5 |
| 29 | Michigan | 27.00 | 10,140,459 | 434 | 1,379 | 1,813 | 5 |
| 30 | Delaware | 31.00 | 1,051,917 | 361 | 1,746 | 2,107 | 6 |
| 31 | Montana | 31.50 | 1,137,233 | 423 | 1,617 | 2,041 | 3 |
| 32 | New York | 32.00 | 19,867,248 | 380 | 1,720 | 2,100 | 3 |
| 33 | Arizona | 35.00 | 7,582,384 | 422 | 1,792 | 2,214 | 5 |
| 34 | North Carolina | 35.50 | 11,046,024 | 376 | 1,968 | 2,344 | 8 |
| 35 | Washington | 37.50 | 7,958,180 | 326 | 2,466 | 2,793 | 4 |
| 36 | Oregon | 37.50 | 4,272,371 | 331 | 2,388 | 2,719 | 4 |
| 37 | Texas | 38.00 | 31,290,831 | 389 | 2,040 | 2,430 | 5 |
| 38 | Missouri | 39.00 | 6,245,466 | 462 | 1,941 | 2,403 | 8 |
| 39 | Oklahoma | 39.00 | 4,095,393 | 423 | 1,978 | 2,401 | 6 |
| 40 | Maryland | 39.50 | 6,263,220 | 420 | 2,050 | 2,470 | 7 |
| 41 | South Carolina | 39.50 | 5,478,831 | 437 | 1,966 | 2,402 | 7 |
| 42 | Kansas | 39.50 | 2,970,606 | 439 | 1,956 | 2,395 | 4 |
| 43 | Alaska | 39.50 | 740,133 | 724 | 1,711 | 2,435 | 7 |
| 44 | Nevada | 40.00 | 3,267,467 | 402 | 2,197 | 2,599 | 6 |
| 45 | Arkansas | 40.50 | 3,088,354 | 579 | 1,930 | 2,509 | 7 |
| 46 | California | 44.50 | 39,431,263 | 486 | 2,078 | 2,564 | 5 |
| 47 | Tennessee | 44.50 | 7,227,750 | 592 | 2,032 | 2,624 | 8 |
| 48 | Louisiana | 46.00 | 4,597,740 | 520 | 2,296 | 2,816 | 11 |
| 49 | Colorado | 46.50 | 5,957,493 | 476 | 2,593 | 3,069 | 5 |
| 50 | New Mexico | 49.50 | 2,130,256 | 717 | 2,751 | 3,468 | 11 |
Source: FBI crime data.
There You Have It — The Safest States In The Country
After measuring every crime factor that makes sense, there isn’t a straightforward ‘region’ with the least crime. But if we had to pick, New England and the northern interior are where the safety is located. If you live in one of the states mentioned above, count yourself lucky.
Does being safe make you complacent? Perhaps. But low crime does indeed buy peace of mind — ask someone without it.
The safest states in the United States for 2026 are New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Wyoming, Connecticut, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Iowa, and West Virginia.
In most of these states, people sleep soundly no matter the surroundings. They lock fewer doors, worry less about their kids walking home, and trust their neighbors. For some, it’s the only way to live.
For the rest of America, we can feel better about ourselves when we remember that, despite what the news says, the country is far safer than it used to be.
