Net Favorability of U.S. States

As a South Carolinian, let me confirm that we do not deserve a positive rating. I love my state, but its government is run by rich idiots.

To be clear, that is still less than 50% approval rating. The only state apparently to get over 50% is Hawaii and not by much.
- Every state is positive! score is favourable - unfavourable. Hawaii would have been 76.5 vs 23.5.

Lol, give me a break and show me the data sources.

I’m surprised that people are surprised by this.

This is actually one of the best maps on here in a while. If you know the US discourse, you can clearly read the stereotypes, political bubbles and straight-up ignorance of the various different people that were surveyed.

Illinois gets dinged because of racist narrative around Chicago. Montana does better than the rest of the midwest because it's romaticised. The people who hate California are a different bunch than the ones who hate Illinois or, for the most part, Alabama. NJ is mainly known from jokes at their expense by media-powerhouse New York. Few people know enough about South Dakota to care. DC just absorbs opinions of the feds.

I don't get the love-on for North Carolina and Pennsylvania, I guess.

People like the outer banks and It's Always Sunny. Midwesterners also HATE Chicago/Illinois since that's the biggest city in the area.
My biggest ahock is that Texas polls so high. Most people who don't live there absolutely despise Texas in my experience.
- What about the Twin Cities? They're also a major center, and in a "more" midwestern area in some sense, although Chicago is probably bigger.
I don't get the love-on for North Carolina and Pennsylvania, I guess.
Not sure about Pennsylvania, but I think North Carolina is rated so favorably because conservatives like it because it's part of the South, and liberals like it because it sucks less than most of the rest of the South due to the Research Triangle. (Georgia gets a similar boost because of Atlanta, but lesser because it gets extra hate from conservatives because of civil rights / Black culture.)
Montana does better than the rest of the midwest because it's romaticised.
So, folks, are we just gonna gloss over this guy calling Montana "Midwest?"
- Midwest, at least culturally, can spread from the slopes of the Rockies to the slopes of Appalachia.
  I am of the strong opinion that Aurora is Midwest and Denver is west.
- Is it not? What would you call it? It doesn't even end at the Canadian border, really, although we start calling it "prairies" to be distinct.
  Source: Live here, have seen that border.
Not sure on Pennsylvania. But for North Carolina, my guess would be the research triangle helping boost it?
- Probably more OBX and the mountains. The "research triangle" is boring af and is just cookie cutter neighborhoods and chain restaurants
- The Pennsylvania part is really mystifying. Is it riding on the popularity of cheese steaks?
What are the chances Washington gets dinged for having the same name as DC?
- To give them some credit, Americans know basic facts about their own geography, at least. Washington ends up with roughly the same favourability as Oregon here, and the two states do seem awfully similar.
  Now, knowing that DC is actually full of ordinary, mostly black people, or that Montana isn't very different from North Dakota? Maybe not. That's beyond just map facts.

West Virginia somehow scores higher than california?? Has anyone actually been to west virginia?

I'm guessing the survey responder pool was "whoever is at this Midwest bingo hall at 2pm on a Tuesday."
Yeah, this seems wrong. Tennessee definitely isn't that good.
- It must be because of the smoky mountains.... only thing cool about this place.
Oklahoma has way better meth labs than California 👍

The scenery is the only thing keeping TN green i assure yall

and Dolly Parton
- Dolly Parton is a national treasure.
Midwesterners absolutely love Nashville for some reason. It's where everyone wants to have the bachelorette parties these days
- Charleston get too expensive?

That's a wild score for Florida. Do people just like Walt Disney World that much?

How in the hell does Oregon and Washington get mid like that? What'd we ever do to you but enjoy our trees and rain?

How do you like a big dumb desert and deserts little cousin more than us???

I think people just don't know much about the PNW. Seattle produced some rock bands and companies in the '90s and Portland got a TV show that ended years ago, but that's about it. We just don't make much noise right now.
- They both had a ton of popular bands and companies.
  I think the rating might be a easily of national politics.
But both Oregon and Washington are mostly big dumb desert. They've got everything!

Finally a map that isn't just a population distribution.

As a Californian, you're all just jealous. I will sit atop my pile of avocados and wildfires and functional economy.

Don’t forget, we also have Disneyland.
Go hang out with Hawaii.
Alaska can come too.

I don't believe this at all. Who did they ask?

clearly not me, I couldn't get out of N Carolina fast enough
- As a lifelong southerner, NC is my favorite southern state. I've lived in SC, FL, NC, VA, TN. I absolutely love Asheville. Granted, I lived there as a youngin, and have only visited Asheville and a few other places as an adult. But my God don't I love Asheville.

NC let's fucking gooooo!

Recently returned to my ancestral homeland of SC, and cheer wine (and actually decent barbecue) have been the local highlights.
RAISE UP

I'm surprised Jersey is rated so low relative to Texas having lived in both states.

Georgia deserves its score. Georgia is great aside from the Atlanta traffic design.

I'm surprised Texas is so high, but I'm not surprised that NJ is low, isn't there an old meme to the effect that New Jersey smells bad/ is full of toxic industrial chemicals or something?
- Texas may have some crap politics statewide, but the major cities are top notch and Hill Country is a national treasure, same goes for the brisket and the old style country music.
  One of these days I’ll get down to Big Bend and up to the mountains in the west.
  I recently got down to Austin and was lucky enough to see the bats fly out from the bridge downtown. Millions of bats, was a sight to behold.
- There is! They even joke about it in Futurama.
New Jersey's negative reputation is almost entirely due to people from NYC jeering at an outgroup
- People from Philadelphia and the whole of Delaware also routinely dunk on NJ for many reasons.
  Can't pump their own gas.
  Can't turn left.
  Gotta pay a toll to get out.
  It's a literal swamp.
  Every single aspect of the Meadowlands.
Jersey is the only state where if you tell someone you're from there, they will tell you why they hate it (and the poor soul probably got stuck in traffic there once while passing through).
- I think my response of "Good, don't come back then" probably makes them even more unfavorable to NJ lmfao
aside from the Atlanta traffic design.
Atlanta (the city proper) is getting better, despite GDOT's best efforts to sabotage it. It's the metro Atlanta suburbs that really suck.
- I'm still butthurt the Atlanta suburbs managed to block the MARTA expansion that was voted for and funded.

As someone who used to live in NC but no longer does because of the car dependence and horrible state politics, how the heck is it one of the highest ones? I didn't think the other states even thought about NC very much outside of election season tbh.

States north of it vacation in the OBX, famous lighthouses
Asheville
Highly rated beer
Highly rated universities
whole triangle area is fantastic place for nightlife, culture and raising a family
Basketball
Mountains - mount mitchell highest peak in the east, waterfalls
Great Smoky National Park, most visited in US
AT goes through it
Blue Ridge Parkway
National white water center
NASCAR HOF
Middle of the road politically, not too red, not too blue
lot of soldiers roll through Fort Liberty
a cacophony of “Carolina ___” songs.
I’ve traveled a lot of places. This one’s home.
- Asheville
  Asheville was great 10 years ago, now its overridden by Florida retirees (and the builders who cater to them) who have driven home prices far past what most people can afford.
- East NC barbecue 😋

The collective South Loud enough for the people in the back, y'all: Thank GOD for Mississippi!

So who was the sample group? And what what the size? Also what was the criteria? This just seems weirdly subjective.

Sample group: 2073 adult citizens Question was just "do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the following states"
Yeah I'm not particularly impressed, but also NC LETS GO

Ohio is way too high. I moved there for a year, first time I talked to the cashier at the local grocery store, I said I moved here from so and so and her knee jerk response was a snarky “why?”

Cleveland is the best hidden gem about that state and that’s saying something.

Also, I’ve oddly had a few good ventures out in Alabama. Fairhope on the bay in particular was much nicer than my preconceived notions had expected. There’s a few good fancy restaurants in downtown Montgomery that are cheaper than equivalents in other states. And Auburn’s campus is a dream, hate what happened to those trees on Toomer’s corner though.

I kinda see where that cashier was coming from though. I grew up in Indiana (not terribly different than Ohio), and we knew it was a garbage state. Its motto is “Crossroads of America”, which we always said just means “you have to go through here to get to somewhere better”.
- That's exactly what people say about Ohio too.
Ohio os the most average state. Make a bell curve comparing states and Ohio is right there at the top every time. The weather is pleasant, rent is cheap, and jobs aren't too hard to come by.
What's Akron like? It seems like it should be cool.

Alaska makes sense as the most popular in perception I suppose

Edit: I didn't even see Hawaii there! Just popular due to tropical features judging by comparison to other politically aligned states, and those with similarly extremely racist backgrounds

Hawaii is racist?
- https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-stuff-you-should-know-26940277/episode/at-long-last-hawaiian-overthrow-episode-71868580/

At least we can all agree that Hawaii is awesome

Surprised that nowhere is negative actually.

As I often find myself saying, yes, New Jersey is terrible, please don’t visit.

Yes yes, absolutely horrible, no need to come and check, nightmare here constantly, just the worst. Yes yes yes.
...
Are they gone yet???
Oh thank goodness!
The best place to visit in New Jersey is Elizabeth, maybe just a bit west of it, there's just lots of fresh air there!

Growing up, my father was in the military, so we moved every 3 years. One of our locations was northern Alabama, and I remember crying about it at the time because I really didn't want to live there and had always heard bad things about it.

Actually living there, it's fine. The Huntsville area has NASA and a lot of aerospace jobs, and is generally a nice and pleasant place to live. You can buy houses within a 30-45 min commute of pretty good jobs for surprisingly cheap (was just looking at a 3000+ sq ft brick house with a couple acres for $120k, needed a new AC unit and some work, but nice enough to live in while you fix it up). The people are really friendly compared to most other states I lived in, and the countryside is pretty beautiful.

I can't speak for most of the rest of the state, but in general I think Alabama gets a worse reputation than it deserves. Biggest issues with it are the tornados and humidity.

I guess Huntsville is a bit off the path, but there's a fuckoff big Confederate flag on the I-65 between Birmingham and Montgomery. Friendly is a matter of proximity and perception: you were either not close enough or too respectable to meet the sort that give Alabama its reputation.
I've been to Huntsville before and was surprised at how charming it was. It felt like one of those idyllic suburbs from a movie.
- Having Huntsville atop the rest of Alabama is kind of like having Canada atop the rest of America.
  Also, the most common thing you'll hear anyone in Alabama say is "Thank God for Mississippi," because at least that way they still have someone to look down on.
I’m sure it’s lovely apart from the killer tornadoes.
- To be fair, a lot of places have some kind of natural disaster threat. Hurricanes, earthquakes, fire, floods, etc.

Alabama I get but what did Mississippi do?

I mean there's a saying in the south, thank God for Mississippi. Because no matter how bad your state is at something, Mississippi's worse.
Ferguson for one. And that was just a symptom

PA is weirdly high.

Man that is another state that is full of wonderful nuggets. Philly is chock full of American Independence history. Pittsburgh has cleaned up a lot and is beautiful there by 3 rivers. People love the Eagles and Steelers. Carnegie Mellon and Penn St are powerhouses. Sesame Place, Hershey Park, 6 flags. Tough parts of the AT go through PA. Turnpike has decent rest stops. Strong Union presence. Decent railroads. Erie is a cool little town by the lake with that Isle right there.
And then all in the middle of the state you basically have a carbon copy of wild n wonderful West Virginia. What’s not to like?
- To answer your main question, "pennsatucky" and the fact that the roads are badly maintained once you cross the border over from a neighboring state.
  But you're right about the good parts. Also, Pennsylvania dutch!

interesting that the scale is positive everywhere.