State Pride: Shouting It Loud with Cutting Boards and Kitchen Trivets

Here in Baltimore, where Words with Boards HQ is located, I can’t drive down a street without seeing a Maryland flag flying high, or walk into a coffee shop without spotting at least one person wearing a t-shirt devoted to the Old Line State.  And, state pride also seems to run high in other states I visit.

It’s no surprise to me, then, that our Maryland-themed cutting boards and our state wooden trivets – trivets with the shape of the state cut out - are so popular. After all, there’s a whole cottage industry built around things like state flags, the shape of a state and even area codes.

So, I was wondering, how does Maryland rank in overall state pride? I know which state kitchen trivets we sell the most of but how does that compare to what the pollsters have to say? When I went researching online I was surprised to discover that, according to the website Movoto, Maryland ranks 49^th in overall state pride. Click here to see where your state ranks.

The ranking is based on the percentage of the state that “likes” it on Facebook. According to that criteria, the states with the most pride are Ohio (we do sell a lot of Ohio state trivets), New Mexico and Alaska. Pretty diverse locations, but I get it.

Ohio has all kinds of things going for it, from rock and roll to football. New Mexico is chile central. And Alaska is gorgeous (and the home base for about a million TV shows).

Movoto is not, of course, the only ranking out there. When the pollsters at Gallup asked Americans if they’d call their state “the very best or one of the best places to live,” Alaska, again, topped the list, with 77% agreeing; the same percentage of Montana residents agreed, as well. (With only 29%, Maryland was at the bottom of that list, too, sadly.)

Gallup also collects research used to generate a state-by-state “well-being index,” which includes several factors related to social relationships, personal finances, pride and appreciation for the community, good health and energy and a sense of purpose.

Since 2012, the same 10 states have topped that list – and, unsurprisingly, Alaska and Montana end up in that list too. The views and all those wide open spaces certainly are appreciated! The other states in the well-being top 10 are: Hawaii, Colorado, South Dakota, Minnesota, Utah, Nebraska, Iowa and Vermont. My home state is way down at #34.

The website Thrillist is not known for its scientific, objective rankings, but their “best of” lists ranking states based on everything can be pretty funny. Michigan, Maine and Kentucky top this list.

Another Thrillist ranking based on food and drink pointed to California, Texas and New York as being tops.  Apparently states with good food are also big trivet-lovers; our Texas and New York trivets are really popular!

(They did, much to my relief, decree that Maryland’s food is 18^th best. Crabs and Old Bay will get them every time – though we still think we deserve a higher spot on the list.)

Based on our (admittedly unscientific) perusal of state rankings out there, we came to the conclusion that there’s a lot to love all over the country. Every state has something going for it.

Of course, given our fierce Maryland pride, the research left us a little confused. But finally, we found what we were looking for: a CNN article stating clearly that, if nothing else, Maryland has one of the very best state flags. We couldn’t agree more.

Where does your state fall on these lists? Are you as surprised as we were?