Washington state is the most dangerous state in the U.S., according to a new study released this week by personal finance company WalletHub rating the best and worst states in which to live.

The study used data including from the FBI to tabulate its ranking across several categories, looking at violent crimes, property crimes, traffic deaths and the amount of law enforcement employees per capita to determine the least-safe states.

After Washington, the least safe states are New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon and Arkansas. Despite having the worst safety score, Washington did not have the highest crime rate, coming in at 48 out of 50; New Mexico and Colorado had more crime.

The safest states were New Jersey, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Idaho and New York.

When accounting for other metrics, including affordability, education and health, quality of life and the state of economy, Washington did better, coming in at 35th out of 50.

The top five best states to live in overall were Massachusetts, Florida, New Jersey, Utah and New Hampshire, while the five worst were Louisiana, New Mexico, Arkansas, Alaska and Nevada.

The WalletHub study was not the first time Washington has been dinged for crime on a national study of states this year. A California law firm, the Simmrin Law Group, found Washington to be the eight-least-safe state.

Washington, per the Simmrin study, had the worst larceny problem in America at more than 2,133 incidents per 100,000 people, the second-worst vandalism and destruction issue at 1,001 incidents per 100,000 people and the third-most amount of burglary or breaking and entering incidents, at 513 per 100,000 people.

In the Simmrin study, the safest states were New Jersey, Vermont, Maine, Idaho and West Virginia, while the five most dangerous states were New Mexico, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Tennessee.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.