New 'Best State' Survey Has All 50, And D.C., Ranked

ACROSS AMERICA — The timeless debate of which of the 50 states is the most popular, and how they all rank, continues with a recently conducted survey shedding new light on the subject.

A “best state” survey conducted in March by YouGov, a London-based research data and analytics group, asked more than 1,200 Americans to choose the better of two states in a series of head-to-head matchups.

Hawaii, at 69 percent, won the highest percentage of matchups, earning bragging rights as the best state in the survey. The Aloha State was followed by Colorado (65 percent) and Virginia (64 percent) as the states chosen most often.

States chosen the least often were Alabama and Mississippi, both at approximately 38 percent. But the District of Columbia, the only non-state option given to participants, was even less popular, getting the nod from only about 35 percent of the respondents who saw it in a matchup. U.S. territories were not included in the survey.

All respondents were given seven state matchups, and no one was given the same state twice, YouGov said in its survey methodology.

The survey included no direction on how to choose between the states provided other than to pick which is better, leaving open a broad set of criteria for the participants to base their decisions.

YouGov found the motto “home is where the heart is” rings true, in most cases. Americans chose their home state 77 percent of the time it was shown, and their current state of residence 79 percent.