Few places draw more mixed opinions than California.<\/p>\n
My trusty spreadsheet<\/a> dug\u00a0into a Clever Real Estate<\/a> poll about what people think of all 50 states, and sure enough, California is as divisive as ever. Pollsters asked 1,000 Americans to rate each state on five things: how desirable it is, or not, whether it\u2019s underrated or misunderstood, and how good it looks.<\/p>\n Most \u201cbest places to live\u201d scorecards use economic and demographic statistics to compare how livable each state is. Clever\u2019s rankings, however, are based on how people feel.<\/p>\n Contemplate the poll\u2019s varied sentiments, using the geeky \u201cstandard deviation\u201d math.\u00a0California\u2019s five rankings had the widest deviations \u2013 42% above average.<\/p>\n Or, put into English, let\u2019s say California\u2019s grades carry the most controversial vibes.<\/p>\n Right behind California on the drama scale are New York, Alaska, Florida, Maryland and Texas. These are primarily big, famous states with lots of different people, weather and politics that tend to stir strong feelings.<\/p>\n On the flip side, the least controversial states were Minnesota, New Mexico and Kentucky.<\/p>\n Love-hate relationship<\/p>\n Complex emotions lead Americans to have extreme thoughts about states like California.<\/p>\n Consider that California was voted the second-most desirable state, just behind Florida and just ahead of Colorado and Texas. Least desirable? Nebraska, Mississippi and Kansas.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, this exact same poll also ranked California tied for the most undesirable, alongside New York. No. 3 was Alabama. California\u2019s arch-rivals Texas and Florida ranked fourth.<\/p>\n And the states drawing the fewest undesirable votes? New Hampshire, North Carolina and Montana.<\/p>\n Being well known is not always good for the country\u2019s biggest states.<\/p>\n Is it fair?<\/p>\n Two of the Clever poll\u2019s questions address the fairness of a state\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n One question asked about misunderstandings in a state\u2019s public image. People showed empathy for California, voting it the third-most misunderstood state.<\/p>\n Only West Virginia and Alaska were more misunderstood. Texas was No. 4, and Florida was 10th.<\/p>\n Conversely, Maryland, New Hampshire and Massachusetts were seen as the states \u201cbest\u201d understood.<\/p>\n Compare those results with what Americans said when asked which states are most underrated.<\/p>\n California landed right in the middle at No. 24. So, maybe its mixed reputation is actually pretty fair.<\/p>\n The same could be said for rivals Texas (25th) and Florida (28th).<\/p>\n The most underrated? Wyoming, Vermont and Tennessee.<\/p>\n And the least underrated, or as some might say \u201cmost overrated,\u201d were Mississippi, New Jersey and Massachusetts.<\/p>\n Beauty contest<\/p>\n The fifth question was all about looks.<\/p>\n No shocker here: California was voted the fourth prettiest state, just behind Hawaii, Alaska and Colorado. Rivals Texas (No. 18) and Florida (No. 9) ranked well for their scenery, too.<\/p>\n And the ugliest states, by this math: Iowa, Kansas and Illinois.<\/p>\n Yet another bit of geeky math may help expose how Americans view states, many of which they\u2019ve never lived in or even visited.<\/p>\n It turns out, natural beauty isn\u2019t just good for tourism, it shapes a state\u2019s entire image.<\/p>\n Using a \u201cPearson correlation,\u201d you see scenery rankings have the strongest statistical association with the other questions.<\/p>\n Just like in life, appearances matter when it comes to a state\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n Final thought<\/p>\n When my spreadsheet averaged all the poll numbers, California lands at 10th-best on this quirky image scoreboard, even with the \u201ccontroversy\u201d within the Golden State\u2019s scores.<\/p>\n What were the best states, by this math? Colorado, Tennessee and Vermont. The worst? Illinois, Mississippi and Kansas.<\/p>\n And the rivals? A No. 17 ranking for Texas was one notch below Florida.<\/p>\n Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com<\/a><\/p>\n