This Is the Most Selfish State in America

The new year is the perfect time to reflect on what we’ve achieved in the past 365 days and what we want to accomplish in the year ahead. Of course, some new year’s resolutions are about tangible gains, like job promotions or weight loss, but the close of one year and the start of another is also a time for reflection on our own virtues, too. What you may not realize is that where you live could be playing a role in where you fall on the naughty or nice list. At Best Life, we crunched the numbers to determine where folks are more concerned with their own lives than those of others—and we’ve found the most selfish state in America.

For our Selfish Index, we started with the Fraser Institute’s generosity index, which scored each state based on the charitable giving trends of its residents on a scale from 1 to 10. Then we looked at the most recent data from AmeriCorp to establish what percentage of residents in each state volunteer in a given year.

Finally, we used a recent study published in the Journal of Research in Personality, which scored each state based on its capacity for empathy—the closer the empathy score is to 4, the less selfish the state is considered. We then gave each metric a weighted value and ran them through our exclusive algorithm to see how each state scored on our Selfish Index.

Utah came out as the least selfish state, with the largest generosity index score and the highest volunteer rate. But generally, states in the Northeast ranked as less selfish, while the South, Midwest, and West were more varied. The most selfish state was notable for both its low volunteer rate and low empathy score. Read on to discover which state it is, and find out where yours falls in the mix. And for the place the runs rampant with a similarly distasteful quality, This Is the Most Dishonest State in America.

Fraser generosity index score: 8.8

Volunteer rate: 51.0 percent

Empathy score: 3.74

Selfish Index Score: 0.00

Fraser generosity index score: 5.7

Volunteer rate: 43.2 percent

Empathy score: 3.76

Selfish Index Score: 25.75

Fraser generosity index score: 5.6

Volunteer rate: 45.1 percent

Empathy score: 3.67

Selfish Index Score: 29.47

Fraser generosity index score: 4.5

Volunteer rate: 38.8 percent

Empathy score: 3.78

Selfish Index Score: 34.12

Fraser generosity index score: 6.8

Volunteer rate: 31.8 percent

Empathy score: 3.72

Selfish Index Score: 42.43

Fraser generosity index score: 5.9

Volunteer rate: 32.6 percent

Empathy score: 3.74

Selfish Index Score: 42.44

Fraser generosity index score: 4.5

Volunteer rate: 30.7 percent

Empathy score: 3.78

Selfish Index Score: 43.89

Fraser generosity index score: 7.7

Volunteer rate: 36.3 percent

Empathy score: 3.67

Selfish Index Score: 44.00

Fraser generosity index score: 5.1

Volunteer rate: 35.1 percent

Empathy score: 3.74

Selfish Index Score: 45.02

Fraser generosity index score: 4.9

Volunteer rate: 35.7 percent

Empathy score: 3.74

Selfish Index Score: 45.69

Fraser generosity index score: 7.5

Volunteer rate: 26.5 percent

Empathy score: 3.71

Selfish Index Score: 46.59

Fraser generosity index score: 3.4

Volunteer rate: 36 percent

Empathy score: 3.77

Selfish Index Score: 47.84

Fraser generosity index score: 3.2

Volunteer rate: 38.7 percent

Empathy score: 3.76

Selfish Index Score: 48.64

Fraser generosity index score: 6.1

Volunteer rate: 34.0 percent

Empathy score: 3.70

Selfish Index Score: 49.98

Fraser generosity index score: 5.0

Volunteer rate: 28.1 percent

Empathy score: 3.75

Selfish Index Score: 51.50

Fraser generosity index score: 4.5

Volunteer rate: 37.4 percent

Empathy score: 3.72

Selfish Index Score: 51.75

Fraser generosity index score: 5.7

Volunteer rate: 25.4 percent

Empathy score: 3.74

Selfish Index Score: 52.52

 

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Fraser generosity index score: 6.0

Volunteer rate: 25.3 percent

Empathy score: 3.73

Selfish Index Score: 53.20

Fraser generosity index score: 5.4

Volunteer rate: 30.0 percent

Empathy score: 3.72

Selfish Index Score: 54.38

Fraser generosity index score: 6.3

Volunteer rate: 26.1 percent

Empathy score: 3.71

Selfish Index Score: 55.45

Fraser generosity index score: 5.2

Volunteer rate: 32.4 percent

Empathy score: 3.71

Selfish Index Score: 55.54

Fraser generosity index score: 4.6

Volunteer rate: 40.2 percent

Empathy score: 3.69

Selfish Index Score: 55.65

Fraser generosity index score: 5.2

Volunteer rate: 37.9 percent

Empathy score: 3.68

Selfish Index Score: 56.88

Fraser generosity index score: 4.5

Volunteer rate: 41.5 percent

Empathy score: 3.68

Selfish Index Score: 57.43

Fraser generosity index score: 5.2

Volunteer rate: 30.8 percent

Empathy score: 3.70

Selfish Index Score: 60.13

Fraser generosity index score: 4.2

Volunteer rate: 32.0 percent

Empathy score: 3.72

Selfish Index Score: 60.36

Fraser generosity index score: 4.1

Volunteer rate: 28.0 percent

Empathy score: 3.74

Selfish Index Score: 60.56

Fraser generosity index score: 3.4

Volunteer rate: 36.3 percent

Empathy score: 3.72

Selfish Index Score: 60.76

Fraser generosity index score: 4.8

Volunteer rate: 30.0 percent

Empathy score: 3.71

Selfish Index Score: 61.23

Fraser generosity index score: 4.4

Volunteer rate: 31.9 percent

Empathy score: 3.71

Selfish Index Score: 61.74

Fraser generosity index score: 2.6

Volunteer rate: 37.4 percent

Empathy score: 3.73

Selfish Index Score: 62.37

Fraser generosity index score: 4.3

Volunteer rate: 29.4 percent

Empathy score: 3.72

Selfish Index Score: 62.79

 

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Fraser generosity index score: 3.9

Volunteer rate: 35.7 percent

Empathy score: 3.70

Selfish Index Score: 63.30

Fraser generosity index score: 3.8

Volunteer rate: 31.3 percent

Empathy score: 3.72

Selfish Index Score: 63.99

Fraser generosity index score: 4.7

Volunteer rate: 23.8 percent

Empathy score: 3.73

Selfish Index Score: 64.09

Fraser generosity index score: 4.4

Volunteer rate: 36.5 percent

Empathy score: 3.68

Selfish Index Score: 64.16

Fraser generosity index score: 4.2

Volunteer rate: 34.2 percent

Empathy score: 3.69

Selfish Index Score: 65.67

Fraser generosity index score: 4.4

Volunteer rate: 28.4 percent

Empathy score: 3.71

Selfish Index Score: 65.96

 

Fraser generosity index score: 4.4

Volunteer rate: 32.7 percent

Empathy score: 3.69

Selfish Index Score: 66.08

Fraser generosity index score: 3.7

Volunteer rate: 33.2 percent

Empathy score: 3.70

Selfish Index Score: 67.72

Fraser generosity index score: 2.5

Volunteer rate: 40.6 percent

Empathy score: 3.69

Selfish Index Score: 69.84

Fraser generosity index score: 3.7

Volunteer rate: 25.8 percent

Empathy score: 3.72

Selfish Index Score: 71.32

Fraser generosity index score: 3.5

Volunteer rate: 34.9 percent

Empathy score: 3.68

Selfish Index Score: 72.38

Fraser generosity index score: 4.7

Volunteer rate: 22.8 percent

Empathy score: 3.70

Selfish Index Score: 73.27

 

Fraser generosity index score: 4.9

Volunteer rate: 31.8 percent

Empathy score: 3.65

Selfish Index Score: 74.30

Fraser generosity index score: 5.6

Volunteer rate: 27.4 percent

Empathy score: 3.65

Selfish Index Score: 74.72

Fraser generosity index score: 3.2

Volunteer rate: 27.1 percent

Empathy score: 3.71

Selfish Index Score: 75.91

Fraser generosity index score: 1.8

Volunteer rate: 28.1 percent

Empathy score: 3.73

Selfish Index Score: 79.17

 

Fraser generosity index score: 4.0

Volunteer rate: 28.1 percent

Empathy score: 3.67

Selfish Index Score: 79.74

 

Fraser generosity index score: 4.4

Volunteer rate: 24.4 percent

Empathy score: 3.60

Selfish Index Score: 100.00