Just how virtuous are Utahns, anyway?
According to a new study by the personal finance website WalletHub, Utah is among the least traditionally “sinful” states. The study compared all 50 states across 47 “key indicators of immorality,” grouped into seven main categories: anger and hatred; excesses and vices; greed; jealousy; laziness; lust; and vanity. Utah was ranked the 43rd most sinful state overall.
In the “excesses and vices” category, Utah finished dead last. That category included data on the state’s share of obese adults, the prevalence of binge and heavy drinking among adults, and the number of drug overdose deaths per 100,000 residents. Utah also ranked 49th in greed, which included data on casinos, gambling-related arrests per capita, and charitable donations as share of income. The laziness category, which factored in share of adults not exercising, average weekly hours worked and volunteer rate, had Utah finishing 48th.
In the lust and jealousy categories, Utah was slightly below average: 31st in lust and 29th in jealousy, respectively. The lust category included stats on teen birth rate, Google searches for adult entertainment and average time spent on adult entertainment sites. The jealousy category, meanwhile, factored in thefts per capita, identity theft complaints per capita, and fraud and other complaints per capita.
When it comes to vanity, however, Utah ranked 21st — the only category in which Utah was above the national average. Beauty salons per capita, Google searches for the five most common plastic surgeries (breast augmentation, liposuction, rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty and facelift), and expenditures per household on personal care products and services were included when determining a state’s vanity.
According to the WalletHub study, America’s 10 most sinful states are as follows:
1. Nevada
2. Texas
3. Florida
4. California
5. Georgia
6. Tennessee
7. Louisiana
8. Illinois
9. South Carolina
10. Mississippi
The bottom 10, meanwhile, were ranked thusly:
41. North Dakota
42. Minnesota
43. Utah
44. Iowa
45. South Dakota
46. New Hampshire
47. Maine
48. Idaho
49. Wyoming
50. Vermont
For more information on the study, visit WalletHub.com.