Few places draw more mixed opinions than California.
My trusty spreadsheet dug into a Clever Real Estate poll about what people think of all 50 states, and sure enough, California is as divisive as ever. Pollsters asked 1,000 Americans to rate each state on five things: how desirable it is, or not, whether it’s underrated or misunderstood, and how good it looks.
Most “best places to live” scorecards use economic and demographic statistics to compare how livable each state is. Clever’s rankings, however, are based on how people feel.
Contemplate the poll’s varied sentiments, using the geeky “standard deviation” math. California’s five rankings had the widest deviations – 42% above average.
Or, put into English, let’s say California’s grades carry the most controversial vibes.
Right behind California on the drama scale are New York, Alaska, Florida, Maryland and Texas. These are primarily big, famous states with lots of different people, weather and politics that tend to stir strong feelings.
On the flip side, the least controversial states were Minnesota, New Mexico and Kentucky.
Love-hate relationship
Complex emotions lead Americans to have extreme thoughts about states like California.
Consider that California was voted the second-most desirable state, just behind Florida and just ahead of Colorado and Texas. Least desirable? Nebraska, Mississippi and Kansas.
Meanwhile, this exact same poll also ranked California tied for the most undesirable, alongside New York. No. 3 was Alabama. California’s arch-rivals Texas and Florida ranked fourth.
And the states drawing the fewest undesirable votes? New Hampshire, North Carolina and Montana.
Being well known is not always good for the country’s biggest states.
Is it fair?
Two of the Clever poll’s questions address the fairness of a state’s reputation.
One question asked about misunderstandings in a state’s public image. People showed empathy for California, voting it the third-most misunderstood state.
Only West Virginia and Alaska were more misunderstood. Texas was No. 4, and Florida was 10th.
Conversely, Maryland, New Hampshire and Massachusetts were seen as the states “best” understood.
Compare those results with what Americans said when asked which states are most underrated.
California landed right in the middle at No. 24. So, maybe its mixed reputation is actually pretty fair.
The same could be said for rivals Texas (25th) and Florida (28th).
The most underrated? Wyoming, Vermont and Tennessee.
And the least underrated, or as some might say “most overrated,” were Mississippi, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Beauty contest
The fifth question was all about looks.
No shocker here: California was voted the fourth prettiest state, just behind Hawaii, Alaska and Colorado. Rivals Texas (No. 18) and Florida (No. 9) ranked well for their scenery, too.
And the ugliest states, by this math: Iowa, Kansas and Illinois.
Yet another bit of geeky math may help expose how Americans view states, many of which they’ve never lived in or even visited.
It turns out, natural beauty isn’t just good for tourism, it shapes a state’s entire image.
Using a “Pearson correlation,” you see scenery rankings have the strongest statistical association with the other questions.
Just like in life, appearances matter when it comes to a state’s reputation.
Final thought
When my spreadsheet averaged all the poll numbers, California lands at 10th-best on this quirky image scoreboard, even with the “controversy” within the Golden State’s scores.
What were the best states, by this math? Colorado, Tennessee and Vermont. The worst? Illinois, Mississippi and Kansas.
And the rivals? A No. 17 ranking for Texas was one notch below Florida.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
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