The following is a list of states grouped by the amount of public access they provide as determined by a study by the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project. The states listed in each category are not individually ranked:

The top states in providing access are:

Virginia

North Carolina

Michigan

Connecticut

Louisiana

Minnesota

Florida

Missouri

District of Columbia

Rhode Island

Second group of states:

Iowa

Mississippi

New York

Kentucky

Indiana

Kansas

Illinois

New Mexico

Wisconsin

Arkansas

Third group of states:

Idaho

Nebraska

Maryland

Oklahoma

Washington

South Carolina

Oregon

Texas

Georgia

California

Fourth group of states:

Delaware

Massachusetts

New Jersey

Utah

West Virginia

Vermont

Hawaii

Colorado

Maine

Alabama

The states listed as providing the least access to public records are:

New Hampshire

North Dakota

Tennessee

Nevada

Alaska

Ohio

Wyoming

Pennsylvania

Arizona

South Dakota

Montana