New Study Suggests Maine is One of the Most Patriotic States

Break out Old Glory and the John Phillips Souza marches, Mainers. This state is officially in love with our country.

Wallethub.com, a personal finance website, recently published its annual report of the most Patriotic states in the nation.

Maine was named as the 5th most patriotic state, beating out all of its New England counterparts in the study. The Pine Tree State scored a 56.8 out of a possible 100 points. The scoring system was based on two major categories, Military Engagement and Civic Engagement. These categories were broken down into 13 sub-categories to make it as detailed as possible. You can read more about the methodology here.

Maine had a modest ranking for military engagement, finishing with a ranking of 38th. However, the state was a big winner in the civic engagement category, finishing only behind Vermont.

It's no surprise to see Maine do well in the civic engagement category. Civic engagement includes voter registration, number of volunteers, jury duty participation, civics education, and more. These are all things that Mainers have a good lock on. That's the beauty of this state. The majority of this population truly cares about their neighbors, community, and country.

I am a little surprised the military engagement ranking is much lower. This is a state that has always had a very proud military tradition. However, maybe there are some things to take away from this study to further make Maine a comfortable and welcoming place for our active service members and veterans.

New England is very mixed in the study. There is a considerable drop off in scoring once you get past the northern region. Here's a look at all of those rankings.

5. Maine
6. Vermont
10. New Hampshire
41. Connecticut
48. Rhode Island
49. Massachusetts

It seems to me that a little more selflessness could go a long way in a few of those Southern New England states.

Congrats to the state of Virginia for pulling down the number 1 spot. You can see the entire list here.