Photo: mattsurelee/Instagram

These Maps Show Every State’s Favorite and Least Favorite States

News Maps + Infographics
by Eben Diskin Feb 3, 2020

If you want to know how your neighbors really feel about you, the answer possibly lies on Matt Shirley’s Instagram account. Shirley makes a chart every day, and last week he created a color-coded map of each state’s favorite other state, based on input from his 329,000 Instagram followers.

According to the unofficial data collected by Shirley, Florida and Colorado appear to be the clear-cut winners, beloved by five states each. New Hampshire and Minnesota are right behind them, with four states each citing them as their favorite. In perhaps the least surprising news ever, only Connecticut likes Massachusetts, while New Jersey appears as the most bitter state, liking absolutely no one.

Of course, there’s also a map of every state’s least favorite state. Overwhelmingly, the entire west seems to hate California — a total of nine states say that California is their least favorite state. Meanwhile, New Jersey and New Hampshire are the clear outliers in the east with five and four states marking them as their least favorite respectively. Floridians, in a surprising show of honesty, admit to hating their home state the most.

New Jersey remains antisocial and admits to hating everyone. The study isn’t exactly scientific, though, and can’t really be used to judge the friendliness of its good people.

Discover Matador