Massachusetts ranked 31st ‘best state’ by Americans in survey
The commonwealth landed lower than every other New England state.
Locals might think Massachusetts is the hub of the universe, but America certainly does not seem to think so.
The commonwealth ranked as the 31st-best state in a YouGov survey published Tuesday. Participants were asked to choose which states were better in head-to-head matchups, and states were ranked by their win percentage.
What does “better” actually mean? That’s up to you. But Massachusetts was the victor only 46 percent of the time, lower than 30 other states including every other state in New England.
Maine won 57 percent of the time, landing it in the 11th spot. Vermont got 14th for winning 56 percent of matchups, and its inverted twin New Hampshire won 54 percent of the time at 19th place. Connecticut was 23rd, winning 51 percent of the time, and Rhode Island was 25th, winning one in two matchups.
The top spot went to Hawaii, which won 69 percent of matches, followed by Colorado and Virginia. Alabama was dead last, only winning 38 percent, followed by Mississippi and New Jersey. (Technically, last place went to Washington D.C. — maybe because of animosity toward national politics, or maybe just because it’s not a state at all.)
Unsurprisingly, people are heavily biased toward their home states. Americans chose both their home state and their current state of residence nearly 80 percent of the time.
So what’s the deal with the skewed New England rankings? Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire certainly deserve credit for their stunning landscapes — the natural beauty of Hawaii and Colorado surely lifted those states to the top two spots.
But why might Massachusetts be held in less regard than Rhode Island or Connecticut? No offense to our neighbors to the south; it’s just that the three states are all pretty similar politically, geographically, and culturally. What makes Massachusetts in particular stand out for the worse?
It could just be the nature of statistics; 1,211 adults choosing between seven pairs of states isn’t an awfully large sample size, and maybe the commonwealth just got unlucky. But it could be more than that.
Maybe there’s some national saltiness over our sports team supremacy? Could it be because of lingering stereotypes about rowdy, rude, and racist Bostonians, who also can’t drive? The particular brand of puritanism that still permeates the state? Our reputation as “Taxachusetts” (which is mostly false), or our high cost of living (which is absolutely true)? Nebulous hatred for “liberal coastal elites,” exaggerated by our dominant institutions of higher education?
(Some Americans direct the same flack toward New York and California, but Massachusetts definitely doesn’t have the same cultural cachet as those two states — they ranked no. 8 and no. 12, respectively.)
Let us know what you think: Is Massachusetts severely underrated, or does it deserve its middling ranking? Maybe it should be even lower? Or maybe you just think this ranking is just a bunch of malarkey? Share your thoughts in the poll below:
Get Boston.com's browser alerts:
Enable breaking news notifications straight to your internet browser.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com