With back-to-school season upon us and 19% of high school students reporting being bullied on school property, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2018’s States with the Biggest Bullying Problems as well as accompanying videos.
To identify the states where bullying is most pervasive, WalletHub’s analysts compared 47 states and the District of Columbia across 20 key metrics, ranging from “bullying-incident rate” to “truancy costs for schools” to “share of high school students bullied online.”
| Top 10 States with Bullying Problems | Bottom 10 States with Bullying Problems | |||
| 1 | Louisiana | 39 | Nevada | |
| 2 | Arkansas | 40 | Kansas | |
| 3 | Missouri | 41 | Florida | |
| 4 | Idaho | 42 | California | |
| 5 | Alaska | 43 | District of Columbia | |
| 6 | North Dakota | 44 | Colorado | |
| 7 | Wisconsin | 45 | Virginia | |
| 8 | West Virginia | 46 | Delaware | |
| 9 | Michigan | 47 | Vermont | |
| 10 | Wyoming | 48 | Massachusetts | |
Best vs. Worst
- The District of Columbia has the lowest share of high school students bullied on school property, 11.50 percent, which is 2.3 times lower than in Arkansas, where the percentage is highest, 26.70 percent.
- The District of Columbia has the lowest share of high school students bullied online, 8.90 percent, which is 2.4 times lower than in Louisiana, where the percentage is highest, 21.20 percent.
- Kansas has the lowest share of high school students involved in a physical fight on school property, 4.6 percent, which is 3.4 times lower than in the District of Columbia, where the percentage is highest, 15.5 percent.
- Massachusetts has the lowest share of high school students who missed school because they felt unsafe at school, 4.5 percent, which is 2.6 times lower than in New Mexico, where the percentage is highest, 11.8 percent.
To view the full report and your state or the District’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/ best-worst-states-at- controlling-bullying/9920/
*Courtesy of Wallethub