The US States With The Best And Worst Data Privacy In 2025: Report
The top states may be a surprise.
Kentucky may be best known for its bourbon and bluegrass, but there is one more thing it may become well known for – as the best state in ensuring its citizens’ data privacy.
According to a new report, Data Security Index 2025, from B2B marketplace firm DesignRush, Kentucky ranks highest among all states in preserving data privacy.
The Bluegrass State ranked lowest for cybercrime and data breaches.
The report’s methodology ranked how safe users’ personal information was based on several factors: cybercrime per capita, data breaches per capita, and whether the state had passed “meaningful” data privacy laws.
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Those factors were compiled into a data safety score of 100.
Kentucky earned a score of 98.20/100. Its cybercrime rate was 133.4 per 100,000 residents, and data breaches were just 0.07 per 100,000.
Next on the list for best data privacy was Montana. It scored a data breach rate of 0.09 per 100,000 citizens.
The remaining states that make up the top 10 for best data privacy are:
3. Tennessee 97.04
4. New Jersey 96.72
5. Utah 96.54 7
6. Iowa 96.48
7. Texas 96.47
8. Minnesota 96.18
9. Virginia 95.52
10. Connecticut 95.31
As far as the worst states for data privacy, Alaska ranked last with a data privacy score of 63.08/100. Maine, Wyoming, Arizona, and Florida also ranked the worst.
It may be surprising that Kentucky and Montana fared better than states with thriving technology hubs like California or New York.
Both Kentucky and Montana are far less populated than New York or California, so could it be that there are less data breaches, for example, because there are less people in those states online?
A representative from DesignRush told MES Computing in an emailed statement that the report creators took online activity into consideration and how that may affect privacy outcomes.
“We cross-referenced state internet usage rates with our data privacy scores. While lower internet penetration can reduce exposure, that alone doesn’t explain the strong performance of states like Kentucky and Montana.”
Instead, legislation and data privacy enforcement had much more bearing on the data privacy scoring, the representative said.
Access the full report here and the data privacy rank of each state here.