This Is The Most Romantic State In The U.S. & It’s Definitely Not What You’d Expect
When you think of romance, you probably picture flowers, chocolates, midnight strolls along the beach, or some other Hallmark movie-esque cliché. But in real life, romance can also be found in the more mundane parts of the day. It's your partner sending a sweet text when they know you're stressed. It's cooking a meal together and watching Netflix for date night because you're both broke. Romance is everywhere, and in fact, the most romantic state in the U.S. (according to a new study) might shock you. It's not New York, and it's not California. It's not snowy Minnesota or tropical Florida, either.
The state that boasts the title of most ~romantic~ is actually Nevada, so buckle your seat belts and grab your wallets. This new information is the result of a recent study from travel agency Pettitts Travel. If you're surprised, you're def not alone. Nevada doesn't exactly scream romance, considering how many bars and strip clubs line the streets of just one of it's major cities. But believe it or not, it tops the list! According to the study, the five least romantic states are Ohio, Alabama, New Hampshire, West Virginia, and Kentucky.
Pettitts looked at several pieces of data, including analyzing marriage and divorce rates, "romantic communication, the amount spent on gifts for Valentine’s Day, overall happiness, and openness to love," and according to the study, Nevada came out on top. The rest of the top five romantic states are, in order: Hawaii, Florida, California, and Washington. For the most part, it seems as though the most romantic states are also some of the most picturesque; the kind that you assume would be the most romantic. But the process for how this study discovered the most romantic state actually helps make sense of why Nevada won.
According to the study, the researchers "searched through a variety of sources — including the most used emoji for each state (if the most commonly used emoji was a heart, for instance, that indicated feelings of romance), as well as the average amount of time people were having sex for, indicating a closeness to partners, and the marriage rate for each destination. We also added in the category for divorce rates, which acted as a counter balance for the marriage rates and allowed us to establish who was the most romantic overall — not just for a short period of time."
The study noted that Nevada "had the highest marriage rate of all the states, combined with a relatively low divorce rate (10.66 percent). The people of Nevada also communicated mostly with stereotypically happy emojis, suggesting as a whole they’re a happy community, which goes hand-in-hand with being happy in love, typically." While Nevada might not be the first state that comes to mind in the romance department, it seems like Nevadans are pretty loved up! Really, any state can be romantic, but this data is certainly interesting. To see where your state falls on the list, peep the study here.
