Tuesday, April 05, 2016

How does your state rank in Google searches? Is it better or worse in comparison to population?

How often do people use Google to search your state? Since 2004 the most searched states are California, Texas, Florida, Illinois and Pennsylvania. Wyoming, the least populous state, is the least searched, followed by South Dakota, North Dakota, Vermont and Idaho.

"Sharp-eyed readers who have been around the cartographic block a few times are probably already protesting," saying states with bigger populations get more hits, while states with smaller populations get less hits, Christopher Ingraham reports for The Washington Post. "States with low population will have fewer in-state residents looking up things about that state on Google. And by and large, there will be fewer people doing the interesting things that cause outsiders to look up that state."

To take a closer look at searches, Ingraham looked at states that underperform or overperform "when it comes to search interest relative to their population," Ingraham writes. That drastically changes results. Alabama, the 24th most populated state, is the 15th most searched, making it No. 1 for overperforming. Many of the state's searches had to do with sports, which is not surprising considering the state has won five of the past seven NCAA football championships, with the University of Alabama winning four times and the Auburn University once. "Other big overperformers include Hawaii and Alaska, Colorado and Connecticut." Indiana, which calls itself the "Crossroads of America," was the most underperforming state, followed by Louisiana, West Virginia, New Mexico and Idaho.

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