A new WalletHub study released just ahead of the Independence Day holiday weekend finds that New York ranks as the worst among the bottom ten least patriotic states.
The study uses “civic engagement,” such as voting rates, and “military engagement,” including how many citizens have joined the military, to determine where the states rank on the patriotism scale.
The most patriotic states in this measurement are Virginia, Washington state, Colorado, Idaho and Alaska. The top ten most patriotic states are rounded out with Maine, North Carolina, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Georgia.
The bottom five, least patriotic states include New York in 50th place, preceded by New Jersey, Rhode Island, Utah, and West Virginia. Included in the bottom ten are Arkansas in 45th place, then Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, and in 41st place Pennsylvania.
WalletHub found that the state with the highest number of military enlistees is Georgia while the lowest percentage is North Dakota. The state with the most military veterans is Alaska and the least is New York.
As to voting rates, the state with the highest rate of voting in the last presidential election was Minnesota, and the worst voting record belonged to Arizona.
Over all, using its criteria, WalletHub found that Republican-leaning states are more patriotic than liberal states.
It is also notable that the least patriotic states includes the current Democratic president’s home state of Illinois and the next Democratic candidate’s home state of New York.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com