Where Does Virginia Rank Among Most Thankful States in America?
Whether we are behind the wheel of a car or watching the news, it’s impossible for us not to notice that politeness seems to have gone out of fashion lately.
Contrary has replaced considerate. Derogatory rules over deferential.
However, perhaps not all has been lost to a culture of churlishness.
The “Thank You Day” was invented in 2021 as a way to recognize and to show appreciation for all those, from front-line workers to medical personnel, who helped the world through the dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, perhaps, such a day can serve to remind us all to appreciate each other, and to act toward others with civility. And there is no more explicit way to do that than with a simple “Thank You”.
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Determining The Most Thankful States
BetVirginia.com took a pause from covering Virginia sportsbooks to determine where folks are most apt to say, in one form or another: “Thank You.”
It might be difficult to objectively measure and quantify the notion of thankfulness, but we still found two key statistics to help with the research.
Before going any further, Virginians can be proud that the commonwealth placed well above average on this list, but with all due respect, you’ll have to read on to find out where Virginia specifically ranked among the 50 U.S. states and how that ranking was determined.
BetVirginia.com used two combined data points to develop a ranking of the states from most to least thankful.
Tipping service workers, of course, is a tangible way of displaying gratitude, so BetVirginia.com used data from the restaurant-associated website Toast.com, which tabulated rankings of the highest average tip percentage at restaurants, by state, during 2022.
Then we used Google Trend’s search interest for “thank you notes” over the past 12 months.
States rated high on either scale received a lower number. For instance, Delaware had the highest ranking for tipping and this was given one point for gthat category, and so on down to 50 points for the bottom state. The thank you notes tabulation was done the same way. We then averaged points in the two categories to arrive at a combined score.
The lower the number, the better, just as in golf.
Using that ranking system, we discovered that Virginia came out near the top of our “most thankful states” ranking. Actually, the commonwealth was No. 10 overall.
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America’s Most Thankful States
| Rank, state | Thank You Note Ranking | Avg. 2022 Tip Ranking | Average Ranking |
|---|
| 1. South Carolina | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| T2. Delaware | 18 | 1 | 9.5 |
| T2. Rhode Island | 5 | 14 | 9.5 |
| 4. Maryland | 3 | 20 | 11.5 |
| T5. New Hampshire | 20 | 7 | 13.5 |
| T5. Pennsylvania | 17 | 10 | 13.5 |
| 7. Nebraska | 9 | 19 | 14 |
| T8. Massachusetts | 1 | 28 | 14.5 |
| T8. Ohio | 23 | 6 | 14.5 |
| 10. Virginia | 7 | 27 | 17 |
How Virginia Rated So High
Here’s how the ranking for Virginia was calculated.
For tipping, Virginia ranked 27th out of the 50 states. Of course, that’s just a smidge below average.
However, for searching thank you notes, Virginia was seventh, illustrating perhaps a more old-fashioned sense of expressing gratitude.
Virginia’s combined average score of 17 (that’s 7 plus 27, divided by 2) placed the commonwealth 10th among all U.S. states.
The top spot in the gratitude rankings went to South Carolina, which ranked eighth for both tipping and for thank you notes.
The rest of the Top 10 were, in order: No. 2 (tied) Delaware and Rhode Island; No. 4 Maryland; No. 5 (tied) New Hampshire and Pennsylvania; No. 7 Nebraska; No. 8 (tied) Massachusetts and Ohio, and No. 10 Virginia.
Thank you for reading.
