Alabama ranks sixth among the states for the highest rate of sexually transmitted diseases.

U.S. News & World Report compiled the ranking using data from 2021 provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most recent year available.

According to the ranking, Alabama’s total STD rate is 989.6 per 100,000 residents. Its chlamydia rate is 625.2 per 100,000, while the rate of gonorrhea is 321.3 per 100,000. The cumulative syphilis rate is 43.1 per 100,000.

Ranking at the top is Alabama’s neighbor, Mississippi, with a total STD rate of 1,266 per 100,000 residents. Coming in second is Louisiana, followed by Alaska, South Carolina and South Dakota.

Georgia, Arkansas, New Mexico and North Carolina round out the top ten.

The national rate is 762.7 cases per 100,000 people, an increase of 6% over the previous year.

Nationally, cases of major sexually transmitted diseases in the U.S. have been increasing, with more than 2.5 million cases of chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhea reported in 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, the rate of total syphilis cases in the U.S. – including all stages of the infection, congenital syphilis and syphilitic stillbirth – rose by 32%.

The rate of chlamydia cases increased 4%, while the rate of gonorrhea infections rose 5% over the same period.