The top 20 are all pretty close, actually.
There are endless rankings of the US states: whether they are the best places to live, the best places to do business, how much fun they are. Such judgements are made by economists, companies, and journalists – but what do Americans themselves think?
We asked people to choose the better of two states in a series of head-to-head matchups. States are rated based on their “win percentage”, that is: how often that state won the head-to-head matchup when it was one of the two states shown.
All 50 states were shown, in addition to Washington, D.C., but territories were not included.
Hawaii, which is well-known for its beautiful beaches and warm weather, took the top spot by winning 69% of its matchups. With its scenic mountains, hiking paths, and recreational marijuana industry, Colorado took second place with 65% of matches won.
I don’t think this means anything at all, of course. There are great aspects of every state and Washington DC comes last not because it’s a hellhole, which it is not, but because is the seat of the federal government. It’s actually quite a beautiful city.
And I’m sure that a lot of people were inflicting their political agendas on states they know nothing about.
I do think we can all agree that Hawaii is paradise, though. Who could say otherwise?