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Favorite states of mind

The top 20 are all pretty close, actually.

Here’s how it was done:

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?

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