Missouri is the 8th most unsafe state in the country according to a new study. According to data compiled by personal finance website Wallethub, the Show-Me state ranks 43rd in the country for safety.
The survey compared the 50 states across 48 safety indicators grouped into five different categories. The information gathered ranges from assaults per capita to unemployment rate to total loss amounts from climate disasters per capita.
Missouri fares best in the category of Workplace Safety, where it falls into the middle of the pack at number 27. The state falls to number 36 for Personal and Residential Safety, 39 under the heading of Emergency Preparedness, and 40 and 42 respectively for Financial Safety and Road Safety.
One breakdown is particularly troubling for Missouri as the state has the 48th lowest percentage of Adults with Rainy Day Funds.
The category given the most importance in the study was Personal & Residential Safety which was assigned 40 points while the other four were allotted 15 points each.
Personal & Residential Safety includes headings such as Number of Mass Shootings, Presence of Terrorist Attacks, Forcible Rapes per Capita, Assaults per Capita and Sex Offenders per Capita.
Financial Safety included groupings such as Share of Uninsured Population, Unemployment Rate, Foreclosure Rate and Median Credit Score.
Under Road safety are headings such as Fatalities per 100 Million Vehicle Miles of Travel, DUIs per Capita, Pedestrian & Pedalcyclist Fatality Rate and Road Quality.
Workplace Safety has four groupings: Fatal Occupational Injuries per 100,000 Full-Time Workers, Injuries & Illnesses per 10,000 Full-Time Workers, Median Days Lost Due to Occupational Injuries & Illnesses and Presence of Occupational Safety & Health Act Plans.
Emergency Preparedness has just two contributing factors; Number of Climate Disasters Causing $1 Billion+ in Damages in Past Decades and Loss Amount from Climate Disasters Causing $1 Billion per Capita.
Overall, Missouri actually performs a little better in the Wallethub safety analysis for states than two of its neighbors to the south – Arkansas which falls into the survey in 45th position, and Oklahoma which ranks 48th.
Among the six other bordering state, Iowa ranks far and away as the safest at number 11. It’s followed by Nebraska (25th), Kentucky (31st), Illinois (35th), Kansas (36th) and Tennessee (39th).
Last month Wallethub ranked Missouri the 9th worst state to be a police officer while the National Council for Home Safety and Security lists St. Louis and Kansas City as two of the top 25 most dangerous cities with more than 100,000 residents.
