Illinois Named One Of The Friendliest States In America

Do what you will with that headline.

You can choose which studies or research you want to believe and this is one of them. A pretty recent (like over the course of the last 4 years) study found which states rank among America's friendliest states.

Smart Asset came up with this list, and here's what they looked at, along with U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey:

• Average daily minutes spent socializing
• Average daily minutes spent volunteering
• Average daily minutes spent helping others

You can immediately raise an eyebrow, since a lot of us are friendly, just profoundly antisocial.

The top 5 states are these

1. Montana
2. Utah
3. Wyoming
4. Oregon

And coming in at #5: Illinois.

You notice though that several of the top 4 states in the Mountain West aren't super populated? Wonder if there's a connection.

For Illinois, the stats look like this:

• Average daily minutes spent socializing- 32.37
• Average daily minutes spent volunteering- 14.12
• Average daily minutes spent helping others- 28.43

What's not listed is the quality and statistics of Illinois drivers but I digress.

Other Midwest (or at least kinda Midwest) states in the top 20 are:

• #7: Nebraska
• #8: North Dakota
• #9: Missouri
• #11: Minnesota
• #13: Wisconsin
• #16: Michigan
• #18: South Dakota

There's an argument that the rankings challenge stereotypes like "Minnesota Nice" but they're at #11 and the "Seattle Freeze" personality when Oregon ranks at #4. Again, use these stats as you so choose.

Do you think Illinois should be in the top 20? What state do you think should've made the top 20 friendliest states list? Let us know in the app!