Safest States: Here's Where North Carolina Ranks

CHARLOTTE, NC — North Carolina has a reputation as a financial center and home to the second largest banking capital in the U.S., behind only New York City. It has top notch universities and 11 Fortune 500 companies.

Some less positive notable facts about North Carolina: Food insecurity is high, affecting about 17 percent of the state, according to a US News study.

When it comes to the most-safe states in the U.S., North Carolina is well above average, according to the personal finance website WalletHub. A new study ranks North Carolina at No. 17 on the list.

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"In order to determine the safest states in America, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 48 key safety indicators grouped into five different categories," the study notes. "Our data set ranges from assaults per capita to unemployment rate to total loss amounts from climate disasters per capita."

How did North Carolina do? Here's a snapshot of some of the rankings in specific categories:

• 9th — Personal and Residential Safety
• 27th — Financial Safety
• 40th — Road Safety
• 5th — Workplace Safety
• 40th — Emergency Preparedness
• 29th — Number of Mass Shootings
• 39th — Murders Per Capita
• 3rd — Forcible Rapes
• 26th — Assaults Per Capita
• 32nd — Thefts Per Capita
• 10th — Sex Offenders Per Capita
• 10th — Drug Abuses Per Capita
• 16th — Law-Enforcement Employees Per Capita
• 20th — Active Firefighters Per Capita
• 13th — Suicide Rate
• 24th — Hate-Crime Incidents Per Capita
• 32nd — Hate Groups Per Capita
• 1st — Number of Neighborhood Watch Groups

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Vermont ranked No. 1 as the safest state in the U.S., and Mississippi came in dead last. These are the five safest states, according to the study:

1. Vermont
2. Maine
3. Minnesota
4. Utah
5. New Hampshire

Here's a look at entire U.S. Hover over a state to see its rank:

You can read the full study and methodology here.

Photo via Shutterstock