State leaderboards
Regulation Rankings
States and categories ranked by regulatory activity, strictness, and diversity, tracking state-level regulations across privacy, AI, employment, food safety and right to repair.
- California
- Most regulated
- 100/100
- Top strictness
- 6
- Leaderboards
PlainRegWatch ranks all 51 US jurisdictions across five regulatory categories, data privacy, artificial intelligence, food chemical bans, right to repair, and worker protection. According to official state legislative records compiled through 2026, California leads every activity measure, while employment and privacy law account for the bulk of recent state rulemaking. Each leaderboard below is computed server-side from primary-source data aggregated from the IAPP US State Privacy Legislation Tracker, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and individual state legislatures; see our methodology for how each score and rank is derived.
The verdict
California leads US state regulation, the most tracked regulations and the highest strictness score (100/100) - while Employment & Worker Protection is the most-regulated policy area nationwide, and Texas covers the broadest span of tracked categories.
- California
- most regulated & strictest state
- 107
- employment & worker protection laws (top category)
- 5/5
- categories covered by Texas
- 6
- ranked leaderboards
Every leaderboard is rendered server-side from the live PlainRegWatch database, figures update as new state legislative records are tracked.
Most Regulated States
States with the highest number of new state-level regulations across all categories.
State regulatory activity, Top 10
Total state-level regulations tracked across all five policy categories
Strictest States
States with the highest regulatory strictness scores based on breadth and enforcement.
| # | State | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 100 |
| 2 | Colorado | 76 |
| 3 | Texas | 69 |
| 4 | Connecticut | 62 |
| 5 | Illinois | 62 |
Most Enacted Regulations
States that have enacted the most regulations into law.
| # | State | Enacted |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 12 |
| 2 | Colorado | 8 |
| 3 | Illinois | 8 |
| 4 | Oregon | 8 |
| 5 | New York | 7 |
Least Regulated States
States with the fewest new state-level regulations.
Most Regulated Categories
Regulatory categories with the most enacted laws nationwide.
| # | Category | Laws |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Employment & Worker Protection | 107 |
| 2 | Data Privacy | 21 |
| 3 | AI Regulation | 10 |
| 4 | Right to Repair | 10 |
| 5 | Food Chemical Bans | 8 |
How these rankings are computed
- Most / Least Regulated States: total state-level regulations PlainRegWatch tracks for each state across all five policy categories.
- Strictest States: a 0–100 composite reflecting regulatory breadth and the share of regulations already enacted into law.
- Most Regulated Categories: the count of state laws tracked within each policy area nationwide.
- Most Regulatory Diversity: how many of the five policy categories a state regulates at least once.
Read the full methodology → Every figure is rendered server-side from the live database; nothing is hardcoded.
Key takeaways
California sets the regulatory pace, but the action is concentrated in worker-protection and privacy law.
- California leads on both volume and strictness, the most tracked regulations and a 100/100 strictness score. View California
- Employment & Worker Protection is the most-regulated policy area, with 107 state laws, far more than any other category. Explore category
- Texas regulates across all 5 policy categories, the broadest coverage of any state. View Texas
Rankings reflect regulations currently tracked from official state legislative records; coverage expands as new laws are enacted.
Every figure on PlainRegWatch is rendered directly from state source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal and state source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.