Survey Says — Louisiana Ranked as One of the Most Dangerous Places to Live

We have a great way of life here in Louisiana. I mean, for the most part, we have a pretty cool attitude about life and people are friendly and welcoming. When I saw a survey on WalletHub that ranked our state as one of the most dangerous places to live, I figured that the crime stats in New Orleans skewed the figures a bit, but the rankings are based on much more than just crime stats.

Well, it turns out that crime stats are only part of this new survey just published yesterday. In addition to crime, 36 other stats were used to determine the relative safety of each state. Researchers also used stats like insurance coverage, job security, disease rates and the big killer for us; natural disasters.

With all those factors taken into consideration, some of the safest states include Vermont, Connecticut and Maine. In fact, for the most part, the safest states were located in the North East; New York not withstanding.

Mixed right in there in the most dangerous states is Louisiana. The majority of the most dangerous states are indeed located in the South. Just how poorly was Louisiana ranked for safety? Well, we came in at #49, just ahead of Mississippi. One stat, quite frankly confuses me a bit and that is that we ranked way up at 20th for "Road Safety."

We ranked dead last in "Financial Safety" and just barely squeaked by in "Workplace Safety", but what really nailed us was "Damage by Natural Disasters" and "Most Occupational Fatalities." Obviously, living in a hurricane prone zone took off a lot of points. As far as the workplace fatalities, we all know that the petroleum industry, while a great career, can be very dangerous.

Maybe they just factored in the I-10 bridge and that did the trick. Do you feel safer or less safe living in Louisiana?

You can read the entire report and learn more about these rankings at WalletHub