America's Most (And Least) Patriotic States Revealed By New Data For 4th Of July 2017

Americans nationwide will gather this week to celebrate Independence Day with fireworks, BBQs and flag-themed festivities. With many celebratory functions already fully in motion ahead of the official Tuesday holiday, a new study revealed how each state ranks in American patriotism — with some leading states eclipsing what many might consider sure-fire contenders.

Considering 13 key metrics of patriotism, WalletHub published its study findings in an extensive report last week that ranked both civic and military engagement. The individually weighted indicators — which included per capita AmeriCorps volunteers, voter turnout and tax records, among others — were graded on a 100-point scale, with 100 representing the highest level of patriotism.

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The top ten most patriotic states, based on the findings of WalletHub’s panel of experts, are as follows:

1. Virginia

2. Alaska

3. Wyoming

4. South Carolina

5. Colorado

6. Washington

7. Hawaii

8. Idaho

9. Georgia

10. North Carolina

The lowest-ranking states for American patriotism are:

1. New Jersey

2. Illinois

3. Massachusetts

4. Rhode Island

5. New York

6. Connecticut

7. California

8. Michigan

9. Pennsylvania

10. Delaware

Scroll over each state to see how it ranks nationally.

Several top ten states scored highly for both civic and military engagement, including Virginia, Wyoming, Washington and Colorado — all of which ranked in the top 15 for both categories.

Both civic and military community engagement metrics were respectively worth 50 points for a combined total of 100 possible points. After considering the metrics by which each state ranked for patriotism, WalletHub’s experts “determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its total score, which we then used to rank-order all the cities in our sample.”

The military engagement category for each state considered the average number of enlistees per 1,000 civilian adults; veterans per 1,000 adult civilians; active-duty personnel per 100,000 adult civilians; and the percentage of civilian adults in military reserves per population.

Civic engagement was measured by considering the percentage of adults who voted in the 2016 presidential election; the number of adults who voted in the 2016 primaries; volunteer rates and volunteer hours per resident; AmeriCorps and Peace Corps volunteers per capita; jury participation per civilian adult population; civics education requirements; and the frequency of Google searches for American flags.

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It’s worth noting that some metrics used to measure state patriotism are largely subjective. As the Washington Post pointed out last year in its analysis of the 2016 data for the same study, the number of Google searches for American flags in each state seems an arbitrary measure of a state's patriotism, even if it's only weighted for 1.28 percent of the state's total score.

The study does, however, seem to indicate consistency in its findings. Both Virginia and New Jersey ranked highest and lowest for most and least patriotic states, respectively, in last year’s findings as well. To see how each individual state ranked, WalletHub's findings can be read in full here.