WalletHub, a personal finance company that provides consumer tools and credit scores to customers, published a survey last month that compares and ranks the states on how well they protect citizens against elder abuse. In doing so, they identified factors that they determined are “key indicators” of elder abuse and analyzed the 50 states and the District of Columbia across three key dimensions: 1) Prevalence, 2) Resources and 3) Protection. The authors explained that they used “16 relevant metrics” in their analysis. Their data included the number of complaints to authorities as well as the quality of the state’s elder financial exploitation laws. The results of the rankings can be found here. Wisconsin was ranked as the state with the highest score and California came in last.

The way experts at EverSafe viewed this survey, there were a number of limitations. Laws on what constitutes “elder abuse” differ in every state. Adult Protective Services offices each have their own criteria for accepting cases. States differ in their reporting requirements and response protocols. Given all of these varying data points, any attempt to compare and rank the states by number in this manner is bound to be problematic.