This is one of those surveys where coming in near the bottom is a good thing.
The so-called Thanksgiving Misery Index is out and Wyoming is doing pretty good.
The Estately company does research to help citizens compare towns, cities, and states in an effort to help them decide where to live.
The company analyzed six different category to come up with the misery index:
- Likelihood of a family food poisoning episode. To get this, they looked at Center for Disease Control’s stats on the most cases of salmonella per capita derived from poultry over the past five years.
- Likelihood of relatives getting drunk and making a scene. To get this information, they went back to the CDC to examine the prevalence of binge drinking among adults per capita.
- Likelihood of political arguments. States with the most even split between Democrat and Republican voters.
- Dietary restrictions impacting meal quality. Back to the CDC to get the highest rates of diabetes and they went to Facebook to determine the highest percentage of vegetarians and vegans.
- Likelihood of favorite NFL team losing on Thanksgiving. They looked at the losing percentage for Thanksgiving Day games of residents’ favorite teams.
- Likelihood of guests/cooks abandoning meal to shop at a Black Friday sale. They used Facebook data here to determine the percentage of Facebook users expressing interest in Black Friday sales.
Sure, there are issues with the “study” but it’s fun to look at. Here’s where Wyoming ranked in each category:
Salmonella cases per capita from poultry. Wyoming ranked 16th.
Binge drinking. Shockingly, Wyoming ranked 32nd.
Contentious politics. We’ve been called the reddest state in the nation. In this study, we’re not quite the reddest. Utah and West Virginia come in at 49 and 50. We’re 48.
We’re also 48th in dietary restrictions.
As for NFL team losing percentage on Thanksgiving, which doesn’t make any sense because Michigan is 14th. The Lions are in Detroit. This one is a head-scratcher.
As for the enthusiasm factor for Black Friday sales, it’s nice to see we are near the bottom again coming in at 37.
Who scored the worst? Ohio, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Wisconsin were the top five.
It doesn’t appear as though any state came in first in more than one category. Although West Virginia pulled an impressive first place in salmonella, second place in NFL teams losing, and third place for Black Friday enthusiasm.
Does this study mean much? No. Is it interesting. It’s more interesting than a Detroit Lions game.
Happy Thanksgiving.
