Patriotic and civic-minded states

Many of our readers may have seen these periodic “Most favorite” or “Top 10 or “Top 25” polls that come out from various websites.

With the Fourth of July upon us, I’d like to share some statistics received from WalletHub that deals with patriotism, the Fourth of July and the most patriotic states.

“To determine where Americans bleed the most red, white and blue, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 13 key indicators of patriotism. The data set ranges from average number of military enlistees to share of adults who voted in the 2016 presidential election to AmeriCorps volunteers per capita,” states WalletHub in its latest survey that came out this week. To determine the most patriotic states, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states across two key dimensions, including “Military Engagement” and “Civic Engagement.”

WalletHub 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, WalletHub determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its total score, which was then used to rank-order all the cities in the sample.

Military Engagement

Average Number of Military Enlistees per 1,000 Civilian Adults Population Between 2010 & 2015 (No Prior Service)

Veterans per 1,000 Civilian Adult Population

Active-Duty Military Personnel per 100,000 Civilian Adult Population

Share of Civilian Adult Population in Military Reserves

Civic Engagement

Share of Adults Who Voted in 2016 Presidential Election

Share of Adults Who Voted in 2016 Primary Elections

Volunteer Rate

Volunteer Hours per Resident

AmeriCorps Volunteers per Capita

Peace Corps Volunteers per Capita

Trial- & Grand-Jury Participation per Civilian Adult Population

Frequency of Google Searches for American Flags (Note: This metric was adjusted for the total number of searches.)

Civics Education Requirement

Then WalletHub asked a handful of experts — all university history professors to examine seven questions:

What are the characteristics of a good patriot?

What is the relative influence of economic incentives versus patriotic intentions when deciding whether to join the military? Has this changed over time?

Is there a link between socio-economic class and level of patriotism?

When evaluating the most patriotic states in America, what are the top five indicators?

Has there been a shift in the way younger generations perceive and express their patriotism?

Should we be raising our children as global citizens first or as Americans first?

What measures should schools and local authorities undertake in order to promote patriotism among citizens?

Once the experts crunched the numbers, where did Nevada show up among all the states. According to WalletHub, the Silver State ranked 23rd.

In the top five and bottom five, Nevada ranked near the last in the number of volunteers, coming in 47th.

Based on what I have heard others in the state and what other newspapers have reported from time to time, I’m not too surprised and the same may be heard across the state. Civic organizations report numbers of members are down as are the number of members in military service organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, etc.

So, here are the top states:

Virginia

Alaska

Wyoming

South Carolina

Colorado

Washington

Hawaii

Idaho

Georgia

North Carolina

Maine

South Dakota

New Hampshire

Oklahoma

Kansas

Nebraska

Maryland

Utah

Arizona

Mississippi

Vermont

Montana

Nevada

Missouri

North Dakota

New Mexico

Alabama

Wisconsin

Iowa

Texas

Florida

Minnesota

Louisiana

Arkansas

Ohio

Kentucky

West Virginia

Oregon

Indiana

Delaware

Pennsylvania

Michigan

California

Connecticut

New York

Rhode Island

Massachusetts

Illinois

New Jersey

Steve Ranson is editor of the LVN.