The HazIndex Hazard Communication OSHA Violations - Top States by OSHA Citations ranking shows published recorded citations for Hazard Communication during the active public release. HazIndex is an independent publisher of workplace-safety rankings and analysis derived from public OSHA enforcement data, and this article summarizes the ranking without adding a new raw-data calculation.
The ranking covers OSHA citations issued from January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2025. It groups the public read-model results by state and sorts them by citations. The parent HazIndex Hazard Communication index provides the broader index context for OSHA standard 1910.1200.
What this ranking measures
This ranking measures recorded citations already published in the HazIndex public read model. It does not normalize for employment, number of establishments, hours worked, inspection volume, or production levels. The ranking is therefore best read as a structured view of recorded OSHA enforcement outcomes, not as a complete measure of present-day safety conditions.
Key findings from the published rows
- MD ranks first with 4,089 citations.
- TN ranks second with 3,280 citations, leaving a first-to-second gap of 809.
- The top three published rows account for 25.4% of the published ranking total.
- The top five published rows account for 35.3%, and the top ten account for 56.0%.
- The ranking includes 56 published states with a published ranking total of 37,894 citations.
Leading results
The leading rows show where recorded OSHA enforcement activity is highest within this published ranking. MD is first, followed by TN and MI. Those positions are rank statements from the HazIndex table; they do not establish why the entities appear in that order.
- Rank 1: MD with 4,089 citations.
- Rank 2: TN with 3,280 citations.
- Rank 3: MI with 2,244 citations.
- Rank 4: OR with 1,958 citations.
- Rank 5: IL with 1,788 citations.
The difference between the first and second rows is 809 in the selected metric. Smaller rank gaps should be interpreted carefully because a nearby value can separate adjacent positions. Larger gaps can make the top position more visually distinct, but the ranking itself still does not establish a cause for the difference.
Concentration and distribution
The published total across this ranking is 37,894 citations. The first three rows account for 25.4% of that total, while the first five account for 35.3%. By the tenth row, the visible top tier accounts for 56.0% of the published total.
Those percentages describe the distribution inside this HazIndex ranking only. They are useful for seeing whether recorded enforcement outcomes are concentrated near the top of the table or spread more broadly across the ranked states. They do not show whether unranked entities had no OSHA activity, and they do not replace the official records maintained by OSHA.
What the ranking does not show
The ranking does not prove that one state is less safe than another, and it does not measure injuries, near misses, or current operating practices. It also does not show every workplace-safety event. It is a public HazIndex analysis layer over recorded OSHA enforcement data for a defined period.
Methodology and sources
HazIndex builds public ranking pages from materialized ranking rows, ranking definitions, yearly period values, and release metadata in the active public release. This Insight uses the same published output shown on the canonical ranking page and does not query large OSHA source-row tables or change the ranking calculation.
Readers can continue with the canonical HazIndex ranking, the parent HazIndex index, the HazIndex workplace-safety indexes hub, and the HazIndex dataset license and usage page. For authoritative case-level details, consult official OSHA resources such as OSHA Data and OSHA Establishment Search.
Related HazIndex Insights
These related HazIndex Insights provide additional context from the same public release and nearby ranking topics.
- Hazard Communication OSHA Citations by Industry: What the Ranking Shows
- Hazard Communication OSHA Employer Citations: What the Ranking Shows
- Hazard Communication Largest OSHA Penalties: What the Ranking Shows
- What the Hazard Communication OSHA Violations Index Shows
Conclusion
The Hazard Communication OSHA Violations - Top States by OSHA Citations ranking gives readers a focused way to review published recorded citations for Hazard Communication in the 2021-2025 HazIndex release. The most useful next step is to review the source ranking page, where the complete table and related ranking context are available.