Ahead of the country’s 250th birthday, a new nationwide study set out to answer a question that feels almost impossible to measure: which state actually loves America the most. Not in bumper stickers or flag sales, but in hard numbers, military service, voter turnout, and volunteer hours. The results landed like a gut punch for several states that consider themselves the beating heart of American pride.
The findings come from WalletHub’s newly released Most Patriotic States in America report, and they upend a lot of assumptions travelers carry about which parts of the country wear their patriotism loudest. Some of the states that talk the biggest game about flag and country barely cracked the middle of the pack. Others that rarely get credit for national pride quietly dominated the rankings.
How the Ranking Actually Works
Researchers scored all 50 states across two categories: military engagement and civic engagement, using 13 separate metrics. Military engagement covers things like the number of active-duty personnel and veterans per capita. Civic engagement covers voter turnout, volunteer rates, AmeriCorps participation, and jury service.
Each state received a score out of 100, and the final rankings are based on the weighted average across every metric.
The Top of the List
Virginia claimed the top spot for 2026. For every 100,000 civilians in the state, there are nearly 1,761 active-duty military personnel, the third highest concentration in the country, and almost 103 veterans for every 1,000 residents. Voter turnout added to the state’s dominance, with 72.9 percent of Virginians casting a ballot in the 2024 presidential election.
The rest of the top 10 reads like a warning to anyone who assumed patriotism lives exclusively in the South:
- Virginia
- Montana
- Vermont
- Colorado
- Oregon
- North Dakota
- Washington
- Maryland
- Minnesota
- New Hampshire
Montana earned its second-place finish on the strength of civic behavior rather than military numbers. Nearly 46 percent of the state’s population voted in the 2020 primary, the highest primary turnout nationwide, and more than 37 percent of residents volunteer for an organization. Only ten states can claim a volunteer rate above 35 percent.
The States Quietly Falling Behind
For a country that treats patriotism as a competition, the bottom of this list is where things get uncomfortable. Arkansas landed dead last, weighed down by a dismal 50th place finish in civic engagement despite a respectable 28th in military engagement. Rounding out the bottom five, from worst to just-above-worst, are New York, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida.
Texas may be the most jarring entry on the entire list. The state ranked 45th overall, its second consecutive year in that position after a steep fall from 36th in 2024. Texas actually performs well militarily, sitting at 13th nationally with the third highest number of military enlistees in the country. Its civic engagement is where the wheels come off, ranking 47th out of 50, dragged down in part by one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the nation for the 2024 presidential election.
New Jersey, Rhode Island, and West Virginia also land in the bottom ten, proof that low patriotism scores aren’t confined to one region or one political leaning.
The Detail That Complicates the Story
Perhaps the most uncomfortable finding for anyone with strong assumptions about patriotism and politics: researchers noted that states which voted Democratic in the 2024 election scored higher on average in participation-based patriotism metrics than states that voted Republican. That single data point has already stirred plenty of debate, since it cuts against the cultural shorthand that equates patriotism with a particular political identity.
Analysts behind the study were quick to point out that patriotism didn’t cluster in any single region. Blue states and red states both appear near the top and near the bottom, which suggests the old shorthand of assuming a state’s flag-waving reputation predicts its actual civic behavior may not hold up.
What This Means If You’re Planning a 250th Anniversary Trip
With the country’s semiquincentennial celebrations still rolling through the year, travelers weighing where to spend the holiday now have a data-backed answer beyond the obvious. Virginia offers no shortage of Revolutionary War history to match its top ranking, while Montana and Vermont bring a quieter, more rural version of civic pride that rarely makes it into typical Fourth of July itineraries.
For those whose home state landed closer to the bottom of the list, the numbers might sting a little. But they also make a strong case for a trip somewhere else this year.
This article draws on data from WalletHub’s Most Patriotic States in America (2026) report.
Amanda O’Brien is the creator and editor of The Boutique Adventurer. She has visited 80 countries and is a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers as well as the IFTWTA. She is passionate about wine had has just completed Level 3 of the WSET. Born in Australia, she lives in London.