New Jersey has been named the most hated state in the country, according to two surveys.
Voz Media has compiled the list of America's least-liked states from research conducted by ZIPPIA and YouGov. Rounding out the top five least popular states are Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama and Kentucky.
The least hated state (or the most loved, for the optimists) is Colorado. It is joined on this podium by Arizona and Maine.
To find out why these results have been obtained, one must look closely at the two lists that were accounted for into the ranking of America's most hated states.
Most (and least) hated according to ZIPPIA
Kathy Morris, of labor data analytics firm ZIPPIA, explains that they developed their metrics by looking at three indicators: the percentage of residents who say their state is the worst state to live in, population decline, and how many states hate a state.
Combining these three factors, Illinois is the most hated. It is one of the most declining states in terms of population, one of the least loved by its own population (25%) and hated by one of the other 49 states.
California takes a medal for being the most detested by other states: nine of them believe it is the worst. In the opposite position is Colorado, with no other state believing it the worst.
Direct removal of YouGov
The research and data analysis group YouGov America pitted all the states against each other in a popularity contest. More than 1,000 American adults who participated in the survey had to choose their favorite among two options.
Here, the losing state was Alabama. It is followed by Mississippi, New Jersey, Arkansas and Iowa.
In the YouGov poll, they point out that 70% of Americans voted in favor of their home state. This number rises to 81% for those who still reside in their home state.
From states to cities
Michigan rose from 18th to first when considering the least reputable cities, according to research by the publication BestLife. It is dragged down by its most populous city, Detroit.
It is followed by Nevada (for Las Vegas), Maryland (Baltimore), California (Los Angeles) and Missouri (St. Louis). Although the results vary more by city than by state, there is one region that leaves no one indifferent: the most loved and most hated cities are in the Midwest.
It is worth noting that the "likeability scale" elaborated by BestLife, ranks Los Angeles lowest amongst the general public.
Baltimore garnered the least pride from its own residents of out of the 44 included in the study. Only 57.3% of Baltimoreans say they are proud of their city. San Antonio ranks in the opposite position, with 66.7% percent pride among residents.
