Is your state 'living in sin?' New analysis breaks down most and least sinful states

WASHINGTON (TND) — Maybe it comes as no surprise that Nevada, home of sin city itself, ranks at the top of WalletHub’s 2023 list of “Most Sinful States in America.”

But before you go throwing stones, look at where your state ranks on the list of most sinful.

WalletHub compared the 50 states against each other in seven categories of “sinfulness” that ranged from indulgences in the seven deadly sins – like laziness, vanity, lust, greed, etc. – to more broad categorizations based on things like “Anger & Hatred,” “Excesses & Vices,” and “Jealousy.” Those seven are then broken down across 47 metrics to build the final and full picture of each category of sin.

For example – and this is more fully reflected in the methodology section below – a state’s relative “Lust” score is determined by looking at for elements: Teen birth rate (measuring the number of births per 1,000 female residents ages 15 to 19); the Google Search Interest Index for “XXX Entertainment” (measuring search interest for online adult entertainment); the average time spent on adult sites; and the number of persons arrested for prostitution and “commercialized vice” per capita. California ranks as the state with the highest lust score, followed by Texas and Louisiana.

Other numbers provide snap shots that show, for example, “West Virginia has the worst drug problem, and it certainly comes as no surprise that Nevada is the most gambling-addicted," as WalletHub writes in its own analysis.

Overall, the top five most sinful states in the U.S. are (from least to most): Nevada, California, Louisiana, Florida and Pennsylvania. Nevada ranked as the greediest and laziest state; California, the most lustful; and Louisiana as the most jealous and the rifest with “Excesses & Vices.”

The five least sinful states in WalletHub’s ranking (from most to least) are: Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, Idaho and Wyoming as the least sinful state in the Union. Vermont ranked as least lustful; New Hampshire as the least angry and hateful; and Idaho as the least jealous. Wyoming did not rank least in any of the seven categories but averaged low enough to end at the bottom.

Make sense for the place known as the “equality state.”

See the full list of states here and the methodology below.

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

Methodology

In order to determine the most sinful states in America, WalletHub compared the 50 states across seven key dimensions: 1) Anger & Hatred, 2) Jealousy, 3) Excesses & Vices, 4) Greed, 5) Lust, 6) Vanity and 7) Laziness.

We examined those dimensions using 47 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest level of sinfulness. For metrics marked with an asterisk (*), the square root of the population was used to calculate the population size in order to avoid overcompensating for minor differences across states.

Finally, we calculated the overall score, or WalletHub Vice Index, for each state based on its weighted average across all metrics and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states.

Anger & Hatred – Total Points: 14.3

• Violent Crimes per Capita: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• Sex Offenders per Capita: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• Bullying Rate: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• Share of Public-School Students in Grades 9–12 Who Carried a Weapon on School Property: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• Hate-Crime Incidents per Capita: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• Hate Groups per Capita: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• Share of Maltreated Adults: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• – Notes: This metric measures the prevalence of rape, physical abuse and or stalking (emotional abuse) among men and women by an intimate partner.
• Share of Maltreated Children: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• – Notes: This metric measures the prevalence of physical, psychological or sexual abuse and maltreatment among children.
• Teen Dating Violence: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• – Notes: This composite metric includes the percentage of teens that:
• oWere ever physically forced to have sexual intercourse
• oExperienced sexual violence by anyone
• oExperienced sexual dating violence
• oExperienced physical dating violence
• Share of Internet Comments that are Hostile: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• Road Rage Ranking (Share of Rude Drivers): Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• Discrimination Cases Filed per Adult Population: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• Number of Mass Shootings: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• Deaths due to Firearms per Capita: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• Share of Persons Arrested For Aggravated Assault: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)
• Share of Elder-Abuse, Gross-Neglect and Exploitation Complaints: Full Weight (~0.89 Points)

Jealousy – Total Points: 14.3

• Thefts per Capita: Full Weight (~4.77 Points)
• Identity-Theft Complaints per Capita: Full Weight (~4.77 Points)
• Fraud & Other Complaints per Capita: Full Weight (~4.77 Points)

Excesses & Vices – Total Points: 14.3

• Share of Obese Adults: Full Weight (~1.43 Points)
• Fast-Food Establishments per Capita: Full Weight (~1.43 Points)
• Excessive Drinking: Full Weight (~1.43 Points)
• — Note: This metric measures the age-adjusted prevalence of binge and heavy drinking among the adult population.
• Share of Adults Who Reported Having Driven After Drinking Too Much: Full Weight (~1.43 Points)
• Share of Adult Smokers: Full Weight (~1.43 Points)
• Share of Adult Coffee Drinkers: Full Weight (~1.43 Points)
• – Note: This metric measures the percentage of adults who drank ready-to-drink coffee in the past six months.
• Share of Population Using Marijuana: Full Weight (~1.43 Points)
• – Note: This metric measures the percentage of residents age 18 and older who used marijuana in the past month.
• Retail Opioid Prescriptions Dispensed per 100 Persons: Full Weight (~1.43 Points)
• Drug Overdose Deaths: Full Weight (~1.43 Points)
• – Note: This metric measures the number of deaths due to drug poisoning per 100,000 residents.
• Debt-to-Income Ratio: Full Weight (~1.43 Points)

Greed – Total Points: 14.3

• Casinos per Capita*: Double Weight (~4.77 Points)
• Gambling-Related Arrests per Capita: Full Weight (~2.38 Points)
• Charitable Donations as Share of Income: Full Weight (~2.38 Points)
• Share of Population with Gambling Disorders: Full Weight (~2.38 Points)
• Persons Arrested for Embezzlement per Capita: Full Weight (~2.38 Points)

Lust – Total Points: 14.3

• Teen Birth Rate: Full Weight (~3.58 Points)
• – Note: This metric measures the number of births per 1,000 female residents ages 15 to 19.
• Google Search Interest Index for “XXX Entertainment”: Full Weight (~3.58 Points)
• – Note: This metric measures search interest for online adult entertainment.
• Average Time Spent on Adult Entertainment Sites: Full Weight (~3.58 Points)
• Persons Arrested for Prostitution and Commercialized Vice per Capita: Full Weight (~3.58 Points)

Vanity – Total Points: 14.3

• Beauty Salons per Capita*: Full Weight (~5.72 Points)
• Google Search Interest Index for “Top 5 Plastic Surgeries”: Full Weight (~5.72 Points)
• – Note: This metric measures search interest for the five most common plastic surgery procedures (breast augmentation, liposuction, rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty and facelift).
• Consumer Expenditures per Household on Personal Care Products and Services: Half Weight (~2.86 Points)

Laziness – Total Points: 14.3

• Share of Adults Not Exercising: Full Weight (~2.60 Points)
• Average Weekly Hours Worked: Full Weight (~2.60 Points)
• Volunteer Rate: Half Weight (~1.30 Points)
• Average Daily Time Spent Watching TV: Full Weight (~2.60 Points)
• High School Graduation Rate: Full Weight (~2.60 Points)
• Share of Disconnected Youth: Full Weight (~2.60 Points)
• – Note: “Disconnected Youth” refers to the population ages 16 to 24 who are neither working nor in school

Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Federal Trade Commission, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, TransUnion, National Council on Problem Gambling, Corporation for National and Community Service, Esri's Updated Demographics (2022 estimates), Parents For Megan's Law Inc., The Crime Victims Center, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Wired, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Gun Violence Archive, Fraser Institute, PornHub, U.S. Department of Commerce, National Center of Education Statistics, Google Ads, Kars4Kids, The Annie E. Casey Foundation and The Southern Poverty Law Center.