”Survey says” looks at various rankings and scorecards judging geographic locations while noting these grades are best seen as a mix of artful interpretation and data.
Buzz: It could be a poor gift-getting year for California’s crazy and pretentious population, if the “naughty or nice” fable aligns with a recent poll.
Source: My trusty spreadsheet used a holiday-themed lens to analyze a poll by Clever Real Estate that asked 1,000 Americans what they thought about the 50 states. This research created nine quality of life metrics and an opinion-driven “best place to live” scorecard. Those results were translated to “naughty” for bad scores and “nice” for good ones.
Topline
California ranks fourth-naughtiest among the states, by this math. Only New Jersey, New York and Illinois fared worse.
And California’s key rivals? Texas is 10th naughtiest, and Florida 12th.
The nicest states, in this popularity contest, are North Carolina, Montana and South Carolina.
Details
The polling unearthed a decidedly love-hate relationship for California.
The state claimed three of the naughtiest characteristics.
It got the most votes as the least desirable state. North Carolina got the fewest. California also has the craziest residents, while New Hampshire is the least-crazy. Golden Staters are most pretentious, with Nebraska least pretentious.
Yet, curiously, California also ranks No. 2 as “most desirable” state. Talk about divided opinions! The most desirable state is Florida, and the worst is Nebraska.
Also, oddly, California has the sixth-nicest residents. The nicest are in Hawaii, with the worst living in Nevada.
There were other naughty scores for California, too.
Like No. 2 for “most annoying residents,” with New York the most and the least being Montana. Or No. 3 for “rudest residents,” with New York, again, No. 1 and Nebraska the least.
Plus, California got “meh” grades for “most underrated” at No. 29. No. 1 is Colorado, and last is Missouri – and perhaps surprisingly “scenery” at No. 32. Best is Hawaii. The worst is Iowa.
Bottom line
Are there any serious economic takeaways from this otherwise fun naughty vs. nice scorecard?
Let’s ponder this popularity poll’s overall rankings when compared with other recent surveys on business trends.
The naughtiest states, like California, have 5% higher average incomes and offer 17% greater worker support.
But the cost of living in those naughty places is 4% higher, tax rates are 8% steeper, so business-friendliness is 20% less.
Still, the naughty states have more residents, averaging 11 million to 4.4 million. So, if population is a measure of popularity, the “nicest” states may be more about aspirations than reality.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com