Poll: Florida 'Most Desirable' State to Live In

Americans believe Florida is more desirable to live in than blue states such as New York or California, a Rasmussen Reports survey released Thursday found.

The survey found respondents relatively split when it comes to their preferences on an area to live when choosing between urban (18 percent), suburban (31 percent), and rural (22 percent) areas or a small town (26 percent).

Most respondents, 57 percent, said they lived in a state other than California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, or Illinois.

Respondents were then asked to choose which state they would move to if they had the choice. Options included California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, as well as “some other state.” 

Florida received the highest percentage of all the specific states listed, as 18 percent said they would move to the Sunshine State. California followed seven points behind with 11 percent choosing the Golden State, followed by New York (10 percent), Texas (9 percent), Pennsylvania (6 percent), and Illinois (4 percent). Over one-third, 37 percent, said “some other state.” 

Florida is also the leading choice of the specific states listed for Republicans (26 percent) and independents (15 percent), and tied for second choice with Democrats (14 percent):

Given a chance to relocate, 31% of Pennsylvanians, 20% of Illinois residents and 16% of New Yorkers would choose Florida. There is very little reciprocation by Floridians, just seven (7%) of whom would rather live in New York, four percent (4%) would prefer Pennsylvania and none of whom (0%) would move to Illinois if given the chance.

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If given the choice to live in any state, 26% of Republicans would choose Florida, as would 14% of Democrats and 15% of those unaffiliated with either major party. Fourteen percent (14%) of Democrats would pick California, but just nine percent (9%) of Republicans and 11% of the unaffiliated share that preference. And while 16% of Democrats say they’d rather live in New York, only five percent (5%) of Republicans and eight percent (8%) of unaffiliateds would prefer to be New Yorkers if they could live in any state they wanted.

Florida is the preferred state of 24% of blacks, 15% of whites and 21% of other minorities. Given the choice, 10% of whites and blacks and 15% of other minorities would move to California. Only eight percent (8%) of whites, but 13% of blacks and other minorities, would rather live in New York.

The survey follows Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) continually thrusting the Sunshine State into the national spotlight due to his relentless pursuit of what have been dubbed freedom first policies — from standing up against vaccine mandates to halting woke indoctrination of  children in classrooms.

Most recently, DeSantis made waves after suspending woke State Attorney Andrew Warren for refusing to enforce the laws.

“It’s not for him to put himself above that [the legislature’s action] and say that he is not going to enforce the laws,” DeSantis said Thursday. “We don’t elect people in one part of the state to have veto power over what the entire state decides on these important issues.”