Here at Face Dragons, we wanted to find a new way of understanding people’s reading habits across the country. Unfortunately, comparing and finding reliable data on individuals’ reading habits across a whole country is difficult. But with new methodologies, we can better understand who is reading and where.
In this Face Dragons study, we aimed to rank each state using data gathered from what individuals are searching on Google. Which state reads most? Find out below!
To jump straight to the complete list of rankings, click here
The Most Well-Read States
- Washington D.C.
- Massachusetts
- Vermont
- Utah
- Maine
The Least Well-Read States
- Alaska
- Delaware
- Georgia
- Maryland
- Missouri
- Kansas
- Nevada
- Tennessee
- South Carolina
Previous studies have used data like the number of libraries or bookstores per capita, but we know that many libraries don’t necessarily mean eyes on books. We wanted to create a study based on individuals’ reading habits. The best method we found for this was analyzing Google Search data.
Google Trends tells us which state searches which terms most. We needed a list of search terms that indicated “intent to read.” Below is the list of terms we used.
Each of these terms indicates that an individual is looking for a book to read:
Intent to Read Search Terms
- Best Nonfiction
- Amazon Books
- Best Books
- Bestsellers
- New Books
- Best Fiction
- Reading List
- Book Marks
- Classic Novels
- Book Suggestions
- Book Ideas
- Best Sellers
- Romance Novels
- Sci-Fi Novels
- Thriller Novels
- Funny Novels
- Self Help Books
- Best books 2022
- Best Books 2021
- Best Books 2020
- What to read
- What should I read
- Good biographies
- new release books
- Top Rated Books
- best paperbacks
- Pulitzer Prize
- Best Kindle books
- Book Club
- Recommended Books
The top five states searching for each of these search terms were recorded and given a score of 1-5.
We tallied the totals and ranked each state from 1-50. The complete rankings are below.
The Rankings
| Rank | Total | State |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 58 | Washington D.C.* |
| 2 | 39 | Massachusetts |
| 3 | 35 | Vermont |
| 4 | 33 | Utah |
| 5 | 27 | Maine |
| 6 | 20 | New York |
| 7 | 19 | Oregon |
| 8 | 15 | New Hampshire |
| 9 | 14 | Minnesota |
| 10 | 14 | California |
| 11 | 13 | Wisconsin |
| 12 | 11 | Colorado |
| 13 | 10 | Louisiana |
| 14 | 10 | Oklahoma |
| 15 | 9 | North Dakota |
| 16 | 8 | Iowa |
| 17 | 8 | Indiana |
| 18 | 8 | Washington |
| 19 | 7 | Ohio |
| 20 | 7 | Florida |
| 21 | 6 | South Dakota |
| 22 | 6 | Texas |
| 23 | 6 | Arizona |
| 24 | 5 | Kentucky |
| 25 | 5 | Nebraska |
| 26 | 5 | Pennsylvania |
| 27 | 5 | Wyoming |
| 28 | 5 | New Mexico |
| 29 | 4 | West Virginia |
| 30 | 4 | Idaho |
| 31 | 3 | Montana |
| 32 | 3 | Connecticut |
| 33 | 3 | Hawaii |
| 34 | 3 | Mississippi |
| 35 | 3 | Michigan |
| 36 | 2 | Rhode Island |
| 37 | 2 | Virginia |
| 38 | 2 | Illinois |
| 39 | 1 | Alabama |
| 40 | 1 | Arkansas |
| 41 | 1 | North Carolina |
| 42 | 1 | New Jersey |
| 43 | 0 | Alaska |
| 44 | 0 | Delaware |
| 45 | 0 | Georgia |
| 46 | 0 | Maryland |
| 47 | 0 | Missouri |
| 48 | 0 | Kansas |
| 49 | 0 | Nevada |
| 50 | 0 | Tennessee |
| 51 | 0 | South Carolina |
