New York is apparently not the red-white-and-blue bastion that the 250th Anniversary Parade might suggest.
The Empire State ranked the second least patriotic state in the Union, according to a troubling study by WalletHub.
New York was the second to last with an overall patriotism score of 28.96 out of 100. WalletHub didn’t specify why New York, the birthplace of the US government under the Constitution, would place so low in the patriot games.
However, it notably fared abysmally in terms of military and civic engagement, notably boasting the least number of veterans per capita in the Union.
Coincidentally, this comes as NY’s democratic socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani was blasted for decrying capitalism and Trump’s immigration crackdown in an address marking America’s 250th anniversary Friday — while sitting at George Washington’s desk.
The survey, conducted in honor of the Fourth of July, ranked the 50 regions based on two “key dimensions:” “Military Engagement” and “Civic Engagement.”
The main categories were evaluated across 13 relevant metrics that were weighted on a 100-point scale “with a score of 100 representing the highest level of patriotism.”
These criteria included average number of military enlistees per 1,000 adults between 2017 and 2022 (8.33 points), the share of adults who voted in the 2024 Presidential Election (25 points) and the AmeriCorpse Volunteers per capita (4.17 points).
To determine their overall level of patriotism, WalletHub “determined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores” to rank the states in order.
“The most patriotic states have a lot of residents who serve or have served in the armed forces, high voter turnouts during elections, and a high share of the population volunteering with national or local organizations,” said WalletHub Analyst Chip Lupo, describing the somewhat surprising results. “Patriotism also isn’t concentrated in any one particular area – the top states are located in vastly different geographic regions.”
Meanwhile, Virginia was the most patriotic state in the Union, clocking a score of 70.07 in that regard. They excelled in terms of military turnout with nearly 1,761 active duty military personnel for every 100,000 civilians — the third-most in the country.
They also have the second most veterans per capita with 103 for every 1,000 civilians.
Virginians didn’t scrimp on their civic duty as they had a high voter turnout rate, with 72.9% of residents having voted in the 2024 presidential election, compared to the national average of 66%.
Following on their heels in this geographical flag run was Montana, which notched a patriotism score of 67.9, borne aloft by their large voter turnout. According to the survey, 69.2% of the state’s eligible residents showed up for the 2024 presidential election while almost 46% voted in the 2020 primary election — the highest primary turnout in the nation.
Vermont, the home of Bernie Sanders, placed third (66.56), with the highest number of people per capita who served on juries over the past year.
In addition, Vermont boasted the most Americorps volunteers per capita.
On the other end of the red-white-and-blue color spectrum, Arkansas somewhat surprisingly placed dead last with a score of 28.23.
The Natural State fared poorly in terms of voter turnout, coming last when it came to percentage of adults who voted in the 2024 election.
Meanwhile, WalletHub found that, contrary to popular belief, Blue States were more patriotic than Red States, per the survey.
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