Body and Soul

WalletHub just issued its report on the hardest-working and laziest states in America, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau , the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and other organizations.

The criteria for “hard-working” include average workweek hours, employment rate, idle youth rate, leisure time, and volunteer efforts. The report also weighs in factors such as commute time and amount of people with multiple jobs.

Americans are hard workers, putting in an average of 1,791 hours per year as of 2021, according to the World Economic Forum. That’s 442 hours per year more than Germans work, but 337 fewer than Mexicans do. Even when given the chance to not work as hard, many Americans don’t. Americans forfeited an average of 4.6 paid days off in 2021.

Based on WalletHub’s criteria, here are all 50 U.S. states ranked from hardest working to least. I added the red and blue colors, using the updated 2022 list of red and blue states, referring to states whose voters predominantly choose either the Republican Party (Red) or Democratic Party (Blue) for presidential and senatorial candidates.

1. North Dakota
2. Alaska
3. Nebraska
4. South Dakota
5. Texas
6. Virginia
7. Oklahoma
8. Kansas
9. New Hampshire
10. Wyoming
11. Georgia
12. Colorado
13. Tennessee
14. Maryland
15. Hawaii
16. Utah
17. Indiana
18. Minnesota
19. Alabama
20. Arkansas
21. Louisiana
22. Iowa
23. Mississippi
24. Wisconsin
25. Idaho
26. Vermont
27. North Carolina
28. South Carolina
29. Missouri
30. Maine
31. Montana
32. Kentucky
33. Arizona
34. Washington
35. Florida
36. Delaware
37. Nevada
38. Pennsylvania
39. Illinois
40. California
41. Oregon
42. Ohio
43. New Jersey
44. Massachusetts
45. Connecticut
46. West Virginia
47. Michigan
48. New York
49. Rhode Island
50. New Mexico

As you can see, 8 of the 10 most hardworking states are red states, whereas 8 of the 10 laziest states are blue states. Why does that not surprise me?

~E