These days, it seems like America is a more violent place than ever. With each mass shooting or attack on unarmed civilians by law enforcement, we find ourselves debating the prevalence of guns, crime and violence in the United States.

However, the evidence shows that violence crime in the U.S. is still on the decline and has been so for quite some time now. National statistics can also be a bit confusing. After all, crime in New York is obviously going to be measured on a different scale than crime in New Hampshire. So, 24/7 Wall Street broke down the numbers to identify which are America’s least and most peaceful states.

The top five most peaceful states, according to the data are:

  1. Maine
  1. Vermont
  1. New Hampshire
  1. Minnesota
  1. Utah

And the top five least peaceful states are:

  1. Nevada
  1. Delaware
  1. Tennessee
  1. Alaska
  1. Louisiana

 

Of course, even in states like Louisiana or Maine, it would be unfair to label one as entirely violent or the other as entirely peaceful. As Dr. Nancy La Vigne, director of the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center, told 24/7 Wall Street: “Even within cities that tend to have higher crime rates and even within neighborhoods that are well known to have lots of violent crime, there are pockets of peaceful streets and pockets of violent ones.”