A few states in the U.S. have become notorious for recent insurance challenges, largely because these places are linked to historically costly natural disasters. But as it turns out, the states in the U.S. where residents are most likely to experience a weather catastrophe are not necessarily the same states that statistically require people who live there to take a comprehensive approach to protecting properties and businesses. Assurance, the data-driven subsidiary of Prudential, recently tracked a handful of locational factors that play into the need for thorough insurance coverage including auto accident statistics, the number of drivers on the road, crime statistics, debt-to-income ratio and the area's propensity for weather catastrophes. The company's researchers fused these stats in order to develop a list of "U.S. States That Need Insurance the Most." The slideshow above illustrates the states that top the Assurance list. Among the boiler points from the Assurance research, which gave each state a "threat score" based on several risk factors:

• Mississippi has the most fatal car crashes in the country with an average of 23 crashes per 100,000 residents in one year.
• Texas has had 80 climate and weather-related disasters over the last decade; it just missed being ranked among the top 10 states that "need insurance."
• Oklahoma topped the list of states that "need insurance the most" because the state has relatively high occurrences of burglary, car theft and arson.

"In places with an elevated risk, it's essential to have a backup plan if the unexpected happens," The Assurance Team write in their study synopsis. "Some states have a higher risk factor than others, meaning you should seek the appropriate coverage depending on those factors." See also:

• 10 states with the lowest natural disaster risk
• States with the highest traffic-accident death costs
• The 5 most accident-prone states