Wyoming has been ranked as the fifth-safest state in the nation by the personal finance website WalletHub.
The state’s status as having the third highest number of law enforcement employees per capita in the nation helped with its fifth-place overall ranking, which put it directly behind Utah and directly ahead of Iowa.
WalletHub said it looked at 53 key safety indicators in five categories to determine the threats faced by state residents from a number of sources, including roadway deaths, workplace fatalities and the coronavirus.
The company said the information it relied on for its rankings included state coronavirus response, assaults per capita, unemployment rates, the percentage of adults with “rainy day funds” and the rate of bullying.
With its high number of law enforcement officers, Wyoming placed sixth for the category of “personal and residential safety,” which also took into consideration a state’s number of mass shootings, assaults, thefts and other crimes per capita and the incidence of bullying.
In the category of financial safety, which looked at items such as the number of uninsured people in the state, unemployment rates, foreclosure rates and personal debt, Wyoming ranked 15th.
For road safety, which looked at factors such as fatal accidents and charges of driving while under the influence of intoxicants, the state was in 16th place, the report said.
Wyoming was in 20th place for workplace safety, due largely to its rank as having one of the nation’s worst ratings for fatal occupational injuries per capita. Wyoming placed 48th in that area, sharing the ranking with North Dakota and Alaska.
Except for Utah, surrounding states trailed Wyoming. Idaho was ranked the 20th-safest place, Nebraska 30th, Colorado 36th, Montana 38th and South Dakota 40th.
