Everything may be bigger in Texas, but according to a new WalletHub ranking, so are the state’s safety concerns.
Texas ranks 48th among the 50 states for safety in a new nationwide analysis released Monday, placing the Lone Star State ahead of only Louisiana and Mississippi.
The WalletHub report, released October 5, evaluated states across 52 measures covering crime, finances, road safety, workplace conditions, and emergency preparedness. The low Texas ranking comes as recent Dallas Police Department data show declines in several major crime categories, including robbery, auto theft, burglary, aggravated assault, and homicide.
Texas Lands Near Bottom of Safety Ranking
WalletHub gave Texas an overall score of 39.83 out of 100.
Texas ranked 40th for personal and residential safety, 40th for financial safety, 40th for road safety, 30th for workplace safety, and 48th for emergency preparedness.
Among individual measures supplied by WalletHub, Texas ranked:
- 35th for murders and non-negligent manslaughters per capita
- 30th for assaults per capita
- 41st for losses from climate disasters per capita
- 32nd for fatal occupational injuries
- 36th for traffic fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled
- 32nd for sex offenders per capita
- 50th for the share of residents without health insurance
WalletHub’s methodology places the greatest weight on personal and residential safety, which accounts for 40% of a state’s overall score.
Murders and non-negligent manslaughters, forcible rapes, assaults, and sex offenders per capita receive double weight within that category. Other measures include theft, mass shootings, drug abuse, overdose deaths, law-enforcement staffing, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, and residents’ perceptions of neighborhood and school safety.
The ranking therefore is not solely a measure of crime. WalletHub said the underlying data were collected as of September 7, 2026, while its climate-disaster measures cover events and losses from 1980 through 2024, meaning the overall score is not a snapshot of current crime conditions.
Financial safety accounts for another 15% and includes unemployment, poverty, credit scores, foreclosures, household emergency savings, and health insurance coverage.
Road safety, workplace safety, and emergency preparedness make up the remainder.
Vermont ranked No. 1 overall, followed by Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. Louisiana ranked 49th, and Mississippi ranked last.
Dallas Crime Moves Down in Major Categories
Texas’ statewide showing contrasts with several recent Dallas crime trends.
As The Dallas Express reported September 30, DPD’s Daily CompStat Crime Briefing covering offenses through September 28 recorded 33,993 offenses among the categories included in the report, compared with 36,853 during the same period in 2025.
That represents a 7.8% decline.
Violent offenses included in the report fell 9.6%, while nonviolent offenses declined 7.4%.
Auto theft dropped 25.2%, from 8,463 offenses to 6,329.
Robbery fell 17.4%, burglary declined 15.8%, aggravated assault dropped 6%, and murder and non-negligent manslaughter decreased 8.7%.
DPD cautions that its CompStat figures are preliminary, can change as cases are investigated or reclassified, and do not include every offense tracked under the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
Not every crime category improved.
Burglary of motor vehicles increased 5% citywide, from 10,234 offenses through September 28, 2025, to 10,744 during the same period this year.
Some areas experienced much larger increases.
A separate Dallas Express analysis found thefts from motor vehicles in Dallas Police Sector 140, which includes the Lower Greenville area, were up approximately 34% through September 28 compared with the same period last year.
Downtown Dallas Reports Sharp Crime Declines
Downtown Dallas has posted even steeper declines in several crime categories.
At Downtown Dallas Inc.’s September 30 State of Downtown event, DDI President and CEO Jennifer Scripps said downtown violent crime was down 16.5%, robberies had fallen 29%, and auto theft had declined 45%, according to recent Dallas Express coverage.
Scripps said no homicides had been reported in the Central Business District through the date of the event.
She also said downtown had 130 police officers assigned and approved, up from numbers in the 90s several years earlier.
DPD’s own CompStat data provide another measure of the decline. The department recorded 1,001 offenses in the Central Business District through September 28, compared with 1,265 during the same period in 2025 — a 20.9% decrease.
The improvement follows an earlier period of rising downtown violence.
A Boston Consulting Group analysis commissioned by DDI found violent crime downtown increased 42% between 2019 and 2023 while declining 14% citywide during the same period.
DDI has attributed the more recent downtown improvement to a combination of increased police presence, homeless outreach, private security, court involvement, and other elements of its Safe in the City initiative.
Dallas Still Hundreds of Officers Below 4,000
Those crime declines come as Dallas continues operating with fewer police officers than the level voters placed into the City Charter through Proposition U.
DPD told The Dallas Express in September that it employed 3,410 sworn officers, leaving the department 590 below the 4,000-officer level.
As DX previously reported, Dallas voters approved Proposition U in November 2024.
The charter requires the number of full-time sworn Dallas police officers to increase to at least 4,000, although it does not specify a deadline for reaching that number.
Dallas’ fiscal year 2027 budget projects approximately 3,651 sworn officers by the end of the fiscal year, which would still leave the department 349 officers below 4,000.
Provided by Dallas Express
