The U.S. States That Struggle the Most With Bullying

Bullying is an extremely common problem across the United States, but that doesn’t mean it can’t have devastatingly painful consequences. A 2022 National Center for Education Statistics study found that one out of five children reported being bullied, and factors like the severity of the bullying and the availability of proper resources and support can determine how much it affects children's lives going forward.

Not all bullying is the same everywhere. Bullying has evolved over the years, with cyberbullying remaining a persistent problem since the rise of social media. Additionally, increased awareness about mental health issues and new approaches to tackling bullying have shifted things in some locations—but, as new research has found, there's still a long way to go.

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Which U.S. States Experience the Most Bullying?

A 2025 data analysis from Innerbody Research attempted to measure the severity of bullying across the United States. It analyzed trends using national data and surveyed 891 people across all 50 states to determine where bullying appeared to be the most and least severe. It also measured factors such as how many physical fights occurred on school property, how many people were bullied online, how many attempted suicide, and truancy due to bullying. 

Overall, Louisiana, Alaska, and Mississippi performed the worst, with Alaska ranking highest in terms of on-campus bullying and California trailing just behind it. New Hampshire ranked highest for online bullying, while North Carolina saw the highest number of students who missed school due to being bullied.

Meanwhile, North Dakota ranked lowest for levels of suicide attempts and truancy due to bullying, and Delaware scored lowest for the percentage of students bullied in school property and online. Maine had the lowest percentage of students who had experienced physical fights at school, while Connecticut had the lowest level of suicide attempts. Some states were also not included due to a lack of data.

See the full results of the study in the map and table below:

What Can Be Done to Combat Bullying?

The study also asked participants about where they had experienced bullying and what strategies they believed were useful in terms of dealing with it. 29% of those surveyed said the bullying they experienced or witnessed had occurred in high school, which was the most common location for bullying. In terms of personal consequences, 46.9% of people who had experienced bullying said they had transferred or left school due to it. 

Regarding anti-bullying strategies, the main thing people said they felt was needed was “better education on bullying prevention.” The majority said that local anti-bullying campaigns were “somewhat effective,” which corresponds to other existing research. Recent studies have indicated that anti-bullying campaigns are overall beneficial for schools, but confirm that not all programs are effective, with some even having adverse effects on those they were designed to help. 

Experts say that fighting bullying requires a nuanced and thoughtful approach. Approaches that require students to tell adults about bullying—but that do not equip adults with tools to handle the bullying—are likely to do more harm than good, writes psychologist Izzy Kalman in Psychology Today. Some anti-bullying education can accidentally make kids feel worse about being bullied, and punishing bullies can sometimes make them angrier and prone to cruelty. 

Instead, approaches that rely on teaching kids to communicate and improve their interpersonal skills show more promise. Encouraging bystanders to act and speak out can also be effective. Also, some organizations emphasize that encouraging kids who are bullied—or who are doing the bullying—to focus on their passions and pursue activities they love can be beneficial for all involved.

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