Are New Yorkers patriotic? Not much, according to a new survey. By the way – neither are New Jerseyites.
Using information gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Veterans Affairs, Defense Manpower Data Center, Corporation for National & Community Service, Peace Corps, Military OneSource, United States Elections Project, Administrative Office of the United States Courts and Center for American Progress, the personal finance web site WalletHub found New Yorkers the second-least patriotic Americans across all 50 states – except for New Jersey.
The research based its findings on a various metrics, including military enlistment, number of veterans, voting records, jury service and volunteering.
“Expressions of American patriotism come in many forms — from setting off fireworks during Fourth of July and buying American-made goods to paying taxes and serving in the armed forces. But some states are better than others at showing their national pride,” WalletHub reported on its web site. “So in order to determine where Americans bleed the most red, white and blue, WalletHub compared the states across 13 key indicators of patriotism. Our data set ranges from share of enlisted military population to share of adults who voted in the 2016 presidential election to AmeriCorps volunteers per capita.”
New Hampshire came in first as the most patriotic state in the union, followed by Wyoming, Vermont, Utah and Idaho.
New York finished 49th among the 50 states. One reason could be the relatively small number of military veterans: 54 out of every one-thousand adults. The state also finished fourth from the bottom of the rankings when it comes to volunteering.
WalletHub says it found – to no one’s surprise – that also red states were shown to be more patriotic than blue states.
To determine the most patriotic states, WalletHub’s Adam McCann noted, staffers compared the 50 states across two key dimensions, Military Engagement and Civic Engagement. “We evaluated those dimensions using 13 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest level of patriotism.
Finally, we determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.”
It was only last year that the Washington Post told its readers that “America needs more patriotism.” Noted columnist Megan McArdle, “If we are to fight our way back from this soft civil war, we will need a muscular patriotism that focuses us on our commonalities instead of our differences.”
