ALBANY, N.Y. (WTEN) – Thinking about buying a home and settling down? You may want to keep the Northeast in consideration, according to a Consumer Affairs ranking of the country’s safest states.
Each state was ranked based on violent crime, property crime, number of law enforcement officers and law enforcement spending using data from the FBI and Census Bureau. The top 10 safest states were also broken down by safest small town, midsize town and large city.
New Jersey, the top-ranked safest state, was given a score of 71.6, followed by New Hampshire and Rhode Island in second and third place, respectively.
When it comes to the lowest amount of violent crime, Vermont outranked all others, while Massachusetts had the least amount of property crime.
The least safe state, according to Consumer Affairs researchers, is Arkansas, after Alaska and Tennessee. New Mexico was left out of the ranking because of a lack of data.
Eight of the 10 safest states are in the northeastern region of the U.S. The top 10 are:
- New Jersey
- New Hampshire
- Rhode Island
- Maine
- Vermont
- Connecticut
- Ohio
- New York
- Virginia
- Massachusetts
To see the full list of safest states, visit the Consumer Affairs website.
