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Hate is a strong word, but I have to use it in this article because that's what people were asked in this survey. For those who live in Illinois and like it, you're probably not going to like this article and survey. If you live and Illinois and hate being there, this one is for you.

Our friends over at Zippia wanted to find out the most hated, and most loved states in the Union. To find out where each state falls on this list, they looked at 3 metrics to determine which states are the most hateable, and likable:

  • The percent of residents who say the state is the “worst possible state to live in”
  • The states with the biggest decrease in population
  • Nationwide, the number of other states who say the hate a state the most

To make sure this wasn't an opinion survey and make it scientific, Zippia started by looking at the percent of residents who told Gallup their state is the “worst possible state to live in.”

After that, Zippia looked at if the population is growing or shrinking. The larger the population decrease, the more hated the state.

Finally, to find out what other states thought of each state, they used an Instagram poll from about a year ago which really still holds true.

After sorting through all of that data, this is what they found:

The top 10 most hated states are:

  1. Illinois
  2. New Jersey
  3. New York
  4. West Virginia
  5. California
  6. Massachusetts
  7. Michigan
  8. Mississippi
  9. Connecticut
  10. Kentucky

The least hated states are:

  1. Colorado
  2. Utah
  3. Montana
  4. Idaho
  5. Minnesota
  6. New Hampshire
  7. Maine
  8. Washington
  9. Wyoming
  10. Arizona

According to Zippia, Illinois is the most hated state out of all 50 states. These are Illinois' stats:

  • Population Decrease: -0.54%
  • % Of Residents Who Say It’s Worst State: 25%
  • States That Hate It: 1 (Wisconsin)

Illinois actually has the largest population decrease than any other state in the country.


 

Where did Iowa land? Pretty much the middle of the pack. Iowa ranked as the 30th most hated state, or 20th most liked state (depending on how you look at it). Only 1 state hates Iowa (stupid Nebraska). I couldn't find the other date about % of residents who say they hate Iowa or the population increase or decrease.

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