Is California America’s most divisive state?

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”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: You either love California or hate it.

Source: That’s what my trusty spreadsheet tells me after analyzing two polling questions from Clever Real Estate, parts of a survey of 1,000 Americans seeking their opinions about the livability of the 50 states.

Topline California topped the nation for a “divisiveness gap” — the byproduct of a contradictory and/or illogical spread in two poll results: California claimed the No. 2 ranking as the “most desirable” state and a No. 1 “least desirable” ranking.

Now, some of the reasons behind that divide can be found by peeking at which other states also drew severely mixed reviews on these questions. Remember, this is America 2024, and folks don’t disagree subtly.

The second-most divisive state by this math was Florida, followed by New York, Texas and Washington. Curiously, this top five is split red vs. blue, politically speaking

But the common thread – all are highly populated states – suggests that with more residents and a higher profile, there’s a bigger divide in opinions about livability.

Conversely, the smallest opinion gaps were found in five lower-profile Midwest states: Nebraska, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas and Iowa. (Yes, all are red states.)

Note that the most divisive states have six times larger populations compared with the least divisive states. So where you want to live – and where you do live – may be two different places.

Details How did we get there? Ponder the poll’s extremes on the desirability issue.

Start with “most desirable” states: Florida was No. 1 followed by California, Texas, Hawaii and New York. The bottom five were Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Mississippi and Oklahoma.

Contrast those grades that with “least desirable” ranking topped by California, then New York, Alaska, Alabama, Texas and Florida. The lowest scores here were found in North Carolina, New Hampshire, Indiana, Montana and Maryland.

Bottom line Clever Real Estate used these two queries plus seven other poll questions, as well as some census migration data, to arrive at its “best state to live in” – North Carolina. That was followed by Montana, South Carolina, Maine and Hawaii.

California was fourth-worst on this livability scorecard, with only New Jersey, New York and Illinois getting poorer scores. Arkansas was fifth worst.

Florida ranked No. 39 and Texas was No. 40.

Postscript Here’s how California fared in seven rankings from the polling …

Most underrated: No. 29 – No. 1 Colorado while Missouri was No. 50.

Nicest residents: No. 6 – No. 1 Hawaii while Nevada was No. 50.

Craziest residents: No. 1 – No. 2 New York while New Hampshire was No. 50.

Worst scenery: No. 19 – No. 1 Iowa while Hawaii was No. 50.

Rudest residents: No. 3 – No. 1 New York while Nebraska was No. 50.

Most annoying residents: No. 2 – No. 1 New York while Montana was No. 50.

Most pretentious residents: No. 1 – No. 2 New York while Nebraska was No. 50.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

Originally Published: August 12, 2024 at 8:19 a.m.

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