Texas is the 44th most peaceful state in the union, according to the annual United States Peace Index.
Overall, the country is at its most peaceful level in twenty years, the index found. “The survey, first issued in 1991, finds that the United States improved in all five categories over 2011, including a 3.2% drop in homicides and a 5.5% dip in violent crimes,” Douglas Stanglin wrote in USA Today.
The country’s top five most peaceful states (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Utah) could also top a list of the most boring states in the union. Only Missouri, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Tennessee, and Louisiana were less peaceful than Texas.
The index, put together by the Institute for Economics and Peace, “measures peacefulness according to five indicators: the number of homicides, number of violent crimes, the incarceration rate, number of police employees and the availability of small arms.”
The index also ranks 61 of the nation’s metro areas by peacefulness, and all five listed Texas metro areas were ranked in the bottom half:
34. Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX
39. Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
41. Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX
45. San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX
56. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX
Texas also has 45 active hate groups, including seven branches of the Ku Klux Klan, six neo-Nazi groups, and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, according to SPLC.
