MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- For the second year in a row Tennessee has been ranked as one of the most dangerous states in the nation.
WMOT reporting partner Wallethub.com ranked Tennessee 47th among the 50 states. Wallethub ranked the state 48th in last year's safety list.
Wallethub analyst Jill Gonzalez says this time around Tennessee scored in the bottom ten states for murders, assaults and drug abuse per capita.
Gonzalez notes that Wallethub added a new metric this year they’re calling "financial safety." She says studies have established a strong link between safety and poverty.
“A lot of times the better an economy is, a state economy, it ends up being a safer place. It ends up investing more in its police force, etc., to really balance things out.”
In 2015 there were 95 murders in Tennessee. Assaults occurred at the rate of one assault for every 100 residents.
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