Ten Things We Hate About Louisiana

I love Louisiana, and just about everything in this state has something that I'm proud of. Really. But there are some things that make no sense about our home state, and we wish they weren't true.

Only in Louisiana has compiled some facts from the last couple of years about our beautiful state that are, frankly, shocking. We can do better, y'all!

1.  Louisiana has an occupational fatality rate of 7.6 per 100,000 workers
2. From 1985 to 2010, Louisiana lost 16.57 square miles a year of wetlands in the Louisiana delta
3. Louisiana has an infant mortality rate of 8.4 per 1,000 births, ranking us 48th in the nation
4. Approximately 73.5% of students in Louisiana who begin 9th grade graduate within four years with a high school diploma
5. Louisiana has a violent crime rate of 518.5 per 100,000, ranking us 46th in the nation
6. About 34.9% of Louisiana residents have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, making us 50th in the country for obesity
7. Approximately 33.7% of Louisiana children are living in poverty, leaving us 50th in the nation for child poverty
8. About 24% of Louisiana residents are smokers, making us 46th in the country for smokers
9. Industrial facilities released more than 12.6 million pounds of toxic chemicals into Louisiana’s waterways in 2012
10. Tiger Shrimp may be invading Louisiana’s waterways