Across the Country, Wyomingites Feel the Most Safe
A recent study by Safewise shows that 26% of Wyoming residents are worried about their safety on a daily basis, compared to the national average of 47%.
The study also polls on states where people feel the most safe, and Wyoming ranks number one, with 86% of people saying they feel safe, compared to New Hampshire in second at 80%, and Louisiana in last at 34%.
Wyoming is also the state least concerned about violence, with only 14% of respondents saying they were concerned about violent crime on a daily basis, while New York comes in at number one, with 73% saying they're worried about violent crime.
The study also shows that 60% of people in Wyoming think that crime is increasing, despite only 9% of respondents saying they've experienced violent crime within the past 12 months.
Of the crime the study asks about, the highest Wyomingites have encountered over the last year is property crime at 19%.
Rebecca Edwards, lead safety and tech reporter for Safewise, said over the three years they have been doing the study, people tend to over estimate how much crime there is, compared to how often people actually encounter crime, however in Wyoming, people guess close to reality.
Edwards was also surprised that the pandemic didn't impact how safe people feel, as she said they only noticed a 1% increase from 2020 in how unsafe people feel.
According to the study, 49% of people in Wyoming use firearms to protect their property, almost twice the national average of 26%.
Edwards said part of the reason people feel safer could be because of the the prevalence of firearms in Wyoming, which could make people feel less worried about crime, along with a general culture of individualism.
"In the west in particular, what I find from Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Alaska, a lot of those states, there's just that rugged individualism, the self sufficiency...People feel like they're able to take care of their own a lot more, and they're not wasting their time stressing out about this stuff. We hear a lot more from Wyoming in particular, 'I live in a safe neighborhood, I live in a safe place, there's not people don't know around,' they don't feel like outsiders are encroaching."