Californians may not be that patriotic compared to their peers in other states. At least that’s the conclusion of one new survey.
The survey released Monday by the site Wallethub.com found only four states with lower rates of patriotic sentiment. Montana was ranked as the most patriotic state, followed by Alaska, Maryland, Vermont and New Hampshire.
New York was ranked the least patriotic state in the country. Other than California and New York, states ranked at the bottom were Michigan, Connecticut and Florida.
The site compared states using two broad categories — military and civic engagement. California ranked 31st in military engagement and 44th in civic engagement.
Within those two categories, the site looked at 13 metrics. For military engagement, WalletHub looked at average military enlistees per 1,000 civilian adults between 2013 and 2018, veterans per 1,000 civilian adults, active-duty military personnel per 100,000 civilian adults and the share of the civilian adult population in military reserves.
For civic engagement, the site looked at nine metrics that included the share of adults who voted in the 2020 presidential election, the share of adults who voted in the 2020 primary elections and the volunteer rate.
The voting data, which was collected by the United States Election Project, has California ranked in the middle. The state was 24th in turnout rate for the 2020 presidential election as 67.4% of voting-eligible adults cast their vote.
California was ranked 48th in veterans per capita and 46th in volunteer rate.
Each state was awarded points these metrics. California had a total score of 27.75 while the leading state, Montana, had a total score of 61.91.
Here is the full list:
1 Montana
2 Alaska
3 Maryland
4 Vermont
5 New Hampshire
6 North Dakota
7 Wyoming
8 Minnesota
9 Oregon
10 Virginia
11 Utah
12 Idaho
13 Wisconsin
14 Washington
15 Arizona
16 Iowa
17 Kentucky
18 Missouri
19 South Carolina
20 Colorado
21 Delaware
22 Maine
23 Hawaii
24 Ohio
25 North Carolina
26 Nevada
27 Nebraska
28 New Mexico
29 Georgia
30 Tennessee
31 Kansas
32 Oklahoma
33 Indiana
34 Alabama
35 Pennsylvania
36 South Dakota
37 Louisiana
38 Rhode Island
39 Massachusetts
40 Mississippi
41 Texas
42 West Virginia
43 Arkansas
44 New Jersey
45 Illinois
46 California
47 Michigan
48 Connecticut
49 Florida
50 New York
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