Every year, WalletHub releases its ranking of the nation’s most “sinful” states. Researchers find various ways of tracking our American investment into the seven deadly sins and then chart which states have strayed the furthest from God’s light. It then aggregates each state’s rankings with the seven sins to find which state is the overall “worst.”
Some of these metrics are a little wonky (“Vanity” is tracked by ranking how much residents of each state spent at beauty salons, for example) so the report should be seen as more interesting than a rock solid way of determining which states are closest to the righteous path.
Bad news for political wonks: there’s no partisan breakdown. According to this study, red states are no more likely than blue states to be particularly virtuous. If you’re looking to politics to keep your morals in check, WalletHub’s study suggests you’re out of luck.
To no one’s surprise, Nevada tops the list, thanks almost entirely to Sin City itself, Las Vegas. Nevada is number one in jealousy and greed, and number four laziness. California is in second place, coming in at number two in both lust and vanity. And Texas is in third place, coming in at sixth in vanity and the overall top spot in lust. Florida and Louisiana round out the top five. Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Georgia, South Carolina and Illinois make up spots six through ten.
On the other end of the scale, Idaho is the least sinful state of them all, ranking at or near the bottom (or top, depending on how you look at it) in all seven categories. Wyoming comes in at number 49, with Vermont, South Dakota, Iowa and New Hampshire rounding out the five least sinful states.
You can read the full report here.
