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.
- North Dakota
- Alaska
- Nebraska
- South Dakota
- Texas
- Virginia
- Oklahoma
- Kansas
- New Hampshire
- Wyoming
- Georgia
- Colorado
- Tennessee
- Maryland
- Hawaii
- Utah
- Indiana
- Minnesota
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Louisiana
- Iowa
- Mississippi
- Wisconsin
- Idaho
- Vermont
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Missouri
- Maine
- Montana
- Kentucky
- Arizona
- Washington
- Florida
- Delaware
- Nevada
- Pennsylvania
- Illinois
- California
- Oregon
- Ohio
- New Jersey
- Massachusetts
- Connecticut
- West Virginia
- Michigan
- New York
- Rhode Island
- 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