• WalletHub released a report of the safest states in the US.
• It ranked states based on 52 safety indicators, including work safety and emergency preparedness.
• Louisiana came in last, followed by Mississippi and Texas.

Not all states are equal when it comes to safety.

And while FBI data from 2023 and 2024 indicates declining crime rates nationwide, what it means to be safe these days is not limited to reduced homicides, assaults, and robberies.

Some states feel safer than others due to stronger financial security or how well-prepared they are for natural disasters.

WalletHub released a report in October 2024 ranking the safest states in the US based on 52 factors in five key areas: personal and residential safety, financial safety, road safety, workplace safety, and emergency preparedness.

Each state was given an overall score out of 100 based on its average rating across the five categories, and all the states were then ranked based on these scores. From this list, Business Insider identified the 10 states with the lowest scores to determine the most unsafe states in the US.

The data used in the report was sourced from the US Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, TransUnion, and US Fire Administration, among other sources.

Here are the 10 most unsafe states in the US, according to WalletHub.

10. South Carolina

The Southern state ranked 42nd in personal and residential safety and 46th for road safety in WalletHub's report.

For financial safety and emergency preparedness, it ranked 32nd and 33rd, respectively. The state also has the most fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel.

Despite its poor rankings in most categories, the state did well in workplace safety, ranking 18th out of all states.

According to a September 2024 report by the South Carolina Fraternal Order of Police, the state also saw a 5.8% decrease in violent crime between 2022 and 2023.

9. Georgia

The Peach State is the ninth most unsafe state in the US, according to WalletHub's report.

Georgia ranked 36th on the emergency preparedness scale, third lowest in financial safety, and 19th worst in road safety. It also has the third-highest share of the uninsured population.

However, the state fares better in personal residential and workplace safety, ranking 33rd and 25th, respectively.

8. Colorado

Colorado has maintained its ranking from 2023, retaining the eighth position.

The Centennial State scored poorly in two categories: personal residential safety, where it ranked 44th, and workplace safety, where it was 43rd overall.

According to the Council of Criminal Justice, Colorado Springs had a 56% increase in homicides — the largest jump among other cities in the US — between 2023 and 2024.

However, Colorado excelled in financial safety, ranking 16th, and is near the middle of the pack for emergency preparedness, in the 28th spot.

7. Alabama

Alabama, which ranked sixth in 2023, moved up a spot in 2024.

The state ranks ninth lowest in financial safety among all 50 states and eighth lowest on the emergency preparedness scale. It also ranked 37th overall for workplace safety and 32nd for personal residential safety.

While homicides declined across Alabama in 2024, Birmingham, the second-most populated city, saw a surge in shootings, surpassing 2023's total and nearing an all-time record of 148, last seen in 1933, per AL.com.

In terms of road safety, the state performed slightly better, ranking 26th overall.

6. Oklahoma

Oklahoma moved from seventh in 2023 to the sixth-most unsafe state in the US in 2024.

This is partly due to its weak performance in emergency preparedness, where it ranked 44th, and in road safety, where it ranked 38th.

The state also has the second-highest share of the uninsured population and the fourth-lowest percentage of adults with rainy-day funds alongside Arkansas.

In a separate WalletHub report, the Sooner State was also ranked one of the worst states for women in 2024.

5. Florida

Florida maintained its ranking from 2023.

The Sunshine State ranked the fourth worst state for emergency preparedness and was also in the bottom 10 in the financial (44th), road (41st), and workplace safety (43rd) categories. It performed better in personal residential safety, ranking 35th overall.

NBC 6 reported in September that Miami — among the most popular tourist destinations in Florida — had the highest rate of property crime: 8,557 incidents per 100,000 residents, based on FBI data from 2022.

4. Arkansas

Arkansas ranked the sixth lowest in personal residential and road safety. It was also the fifth-worst state in the US for workplace safety and ranked 36th in financial safety.

The state also has the fourth-most assaults per capita — alongside Tennessee, Alaska, and New Mexico — and the fourth-lowest percentage of adults with rainy-day funds.

3. Texas

WalletHub ranked Texas as the third least safe state to live in the US because of its low road safety and emergency preparedness.

The state has grappled with roadway fatalities in both rural and urban areas. Dallas, for example, experienced 207 traffic fatalities in 2024, an increase from the 205 deaths that were recorded in 2023, according to an analysis of Texas Department of Transportation data by NBC 5 Investigates.

The Lone Star State also has the highest share of the uninsured population.

However, it fared better in workplace safety, ranking 32nd.

2. Mississippi

Mississippi retained its spot as the second most unsafe state in the US.

It's the worst state for road safety and emergency preparedness, ranking 50th in each category. It's also the second worst for workplace safety.

Compared to other states, Mississippi, which has experienced extreme droughts, rising sea levels, and dangerous heat levels in recent years, has the fourth-highest total loss amount from climate disasters per capita. Yet it has a high share of uninsured people and the second-lowest percentage of adults with rainy day funds.

It also has the second most fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel and the third most fatal occupational injuries per total workers.

1. Louisiana

For two years in a row, Louisiana has been the least safe state in the US, according to WalletHub.

The Pelican State continues to be at the bottom of the safety index, partly because it is the second-least safe regarding road safety and on the emergency preparedness scale. It is also the 11th worst in personal residential and workplace safety.

Positioned 33rd, it fared relatively better in road safety rankings.

Although it has the highest number of law enforcement employees per capita — a position it shares with Wyoming and New Jersey — Louisiana has the fifth-most assaults per capita.

Along with Mississippi and the Dakotas, the state ranked 47th for having one of the highest total per capita losses from climate disasters.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., is leading the charge for a national ban on trans athletes in college sports. 

Tuberville previously told Fox News Digital he will be re-introducing the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act to Congress after the new House rules package passed last week, which would punish schools financially if they allow trans athletes to compete against girls and women. 

For the Republican, who has been a longtime advocate for the bill, certain decisions that have been made over the last four years under the Biden administration are the driving force behind his urgency on this issue. 

"It's just a shame what's happened here over the last four years. It's been an attack on gender, it's been really an attack on women, all women," Tuberville said during an interview on OutKick's "Don't @ Me With Dan Dakich."

"They don't like women," he said. "They like everybody to think when they're born, ‘you’re not a woman, you're actually a man in women's clothing.'" 

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The Biden administration, alongside other Democrats, has taken sweeping actions over the last four years to enable trans athletes in women's and girls' sports. 

On Jan. 20, 2021, just hours after President Biden assumed office, he issued an executive order on "Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation." 

This order included a section that read, "Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports." 

Biden issued a sweeping rule that clarified that Title IX’s ban on "sex" discrimination in schools covers discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation and "pregnancy or related conditions," in April. The administration insisted the regulation does not address athletic eligibility. However, multiple experts presented evidence to Fox News Digital in June that it would ultimately put more biological men in women's sports. 

Multiple states filed lawsuits and enacted their own laws to address this issue, and then the Supreme Court then voted 5-4 in August to reject an emergency request by the Biden administration to enforce its sweeping changes in those states. 

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Democrats have proposed other federal legislation that would allow for more transgender inclusion in women's sports. These include the Equality Act, which was proposed in 2019 and has seen revisions that "would force public schools to allow biologically male athletes who identify as transgender on girls’ sports teams."

In March 2023, Democrats advocated for a transgender bill of rights, proposing a resolution "recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights." The resolution specifically called for federal law to ensure that biological men can "participate in sports on teams and in programs that best align with their gender identity; [and] use school facilities that best align with their gender identity."

Multiple national scandals erupted as a result of these laws, and other Democratic laws at the state level, in 2024 alone. The issue became one of the strongest attack points by the Trump campaign and other Republicans as they re-took control of the White House and both houses of Congress in November, as many Democrats have withdrawn from their past support for trans-inclusion amid insurmountable backlash. Biden's department of education was even forced to withdraw a proposed rule that would outlaw states from banning trans inclusion in December. 

A national exit poll conducted by the Concerned Women for America legislative action committee found that 70% of moderate voters saw the issue of "Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls and women’s sports and of transgender boys and men using girls and women’s bathrooms," as important to them. 

Additionally, 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was "very important."

Now, Tuberville's bill will be their first step toward making good on their election-season stance on the issue. 

The measure would maintain that Title IX treats gender as "recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth" and does not adjust it to apply to gender identity. 

The bill would also ban federal funding from going toward athletic programs that allow biological men to participate in women's and girls' sports.  

The measure is co-sponsored by 23 Republican senators, including Sens. James Risch and Mike Crapo of Idaho, Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Thom Tillis and Ted Budd of North Carolina, Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Tom Cotton, R-Ark., James Lankford, R-Okla., Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy of Montana, Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Mike Lee, R-Utah, John Kennedy, R-La., John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Pete Ricketts, R-Neb.

New Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has already granted Tuberville's bill the proper blessing to move forward, and a vote on the measure could come as soon as the end of the week. 

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Six states, including one with a Democratic governor, have either banned or prohibited the use of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in public colleges and universities this year.

The practice of DEI in higher educational institutions has been controversial for several years, most frequently opposed by Republicans and described by critics, such as civil rights attorney Devon Westhill, as an "industry that pushes a left-wing, far-left ideological orthodoxy in essentially every area of American life."

In 2024 alone, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas and Utah either banned or limited the use of such teaching or use in the application process in their state's education system.

In January, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, signed legislation to prohibit institutions from engaging in "discriminatory practices" such as "that an individual, by virtue of the individual’s personal identity characteristics, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other individuals with the same personal identity characteristics." 

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The anti-DEI law also banned schools from having any policy, procedure, practice, program, office, initiative, or required training that is referred to or called "diversity, equity and inclusion."

In March, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama signed SB 129 into law. It prohibits certain DEI offices, as well as the "promotion, endorsement, and affirmation of certain divisive concepts in certain public settings."

The bill bans "divisive concepts," such as "that any individual should accept, acknowledge, affirm, or assent to a sense of guilt, complicity, or a need to apologize on the basis of his or her race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin" and "that meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist."

The legislation also required that restrooms be used on the basis of biological sex rather than gender identity, and that public institutions of higher education "authorize certain penalties for violation."

Also in March, Indiana adopted legislation to amend the duties of state educational institutions' diversity committees and increase "intellectual diversity." Additionally, the Indiana House introduced legislation to further prohibit DEI teachings in schools by mandating that educators "shall not promote in any course certain concepts related to race or sex."

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Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, allowed legislation prohibiting postsecondary educational institutions from engaging in certain DEI-related actions to become law without her signature. The bill, passed in April, imposes a $10,000 fine on any public institution that employs DEI practices in faculty hiring or student enrollment processes.

"While I have concerns about this legislation, I don’t believe that the conduct targeted in this legislation occurs in our universities," Kelly wrote in her passage of the bill.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, another Republican, signed an education-funding bill in May that contained provisions to limit DEI in schools, just months after the state's board of education began to scale back on such practices in higher education.

The bill prohibits "any effort to promote, as the official position of the public institution of higher education, a particular, widely contested opinion referencing unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, antiracism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, nee-pronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender theory, racial privilege, sexual privilege, or any related formulation of these concepts." 

Idaho became the latest state to determine that institutions may not "require specific structures or activities related to DEI."

In December, the Idaho Board of Education unanimously agreed on a resolution requiring that institutions "ensure that no central offices, policies, procedures, or initiatives are dedicated to DEI ideology" and "ensure that no employee or student is required to declare gender identity or preferred pronouns."

Other states, such as Florida, Texas and Tennessee, have all previously banned the practice of DEI in higher education.

Alabama A&M University is now saying Medrick Burnett Jr., a redshirt freshman linebacker, has not died after releasing a statement earlier Wednesday saying otherwise. 

The athletic department retracted its statement on Burnett, the 20-year-old injured in a game against Alabama State earlier this season. 

This revised statement said the initial news from Burnett’s death came "from an immediate family member on Tuesday evening." It ended up being false. 

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"Our staff acted accordingly to the wishes of the family member to inform the A&M community and beyond of this unfortunate occurrence," the second statement said. "Upon hearing from a representative from UAB Hospital this afternoon, we learned that he remains alive.

"We express our immediate regret for disseminating false information. However, we hold complete joy in knowing that Medrick remains in stable condition."

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Burnett’s GoFundMe page, which was set up by his older sister, Dominece James, issued its own statement Wednesday. 

"Please pray he is having a tough time but we are holding on til the very end. God give us strength so we can keep the faith," the statement said. 

The GoFundMe explained earlier that Burnett was dealing with brain bleeds and swelling from head injuries sustained in a game in late October. 

"He had to have a tube to drain to relieve the pressure, and after 2 days of severe pressure, we had to opt for a craniotomy, which was the last resort to help try to save his life," James said on the GoFundMe page.

Burnett played in five games for Alabama A&M this season, registering five total tackles.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Alabama A&M University football player Medrick Burnett Jr. died after sustaining a serious head injury in a game, the school announced. 

Burnett was 20 years old. 

The news was announced by Alabama A&M athletic director Paul A. Bryant, who said Burnett died Tuesday. 

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"Medrick was more than an exceptional athlete; he was a remarkable young man whose positive energy, leadership and compassion left an indelible mark on everyone who knew him," Bryant said in a statement, according to TMZ Sports. 

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"While words cannot adequately express our grief, we are humbled by the strength of his family, who stood by his side throughout this unimaginable ordeal."

Burnett, a redshirt freshman who transferred from Grambling State this season, sustained a severe head injury in a collision during the team’s game against Alabama State in October. 

Dominece James, Burnett’s sister, had a GoFundMe established for her younger brother, explaining he had brain bleeds and swelling from the injury. 

"He had to have a tube to drain to relieve the pressure, and after 2 days of severe pressure, we had to opt for a craniotomy, which was the last resort to help try to save his life," James said on the GoFundMe page.

Burnett was a 6-foot-2, 225-pound linebacker who grew up in Lakewood, California. 

He played in five games this season, registering five tackles. 

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