Least Visited U.S. States by JetPunkers

Proposal: The same kind of quizes but weighted by the current population of the states.

The closest I came to visiting these 10 is passing by bus through MS.

the closest I came is suggesting a road trip across the US to my brother and then he went when I wasn't free without me.

Oof that sucks.

Gotta at least get out of the car/bus/train, IMHO. I have a friend whose rule is "you have to eat a meal in the state to count it as visited."

I've never been to the USA, but for European countries (which I'm guessing is somewhat comparable), I have to leave the vehicle and be outside of any airport.

My rule as of now is if there’s something memorable I did there, I count it as visited.

for me its the same. but i had a layover in Sofia, Bulgaria once and i took a shuttle bus to a nearby hotel to sleep for a few hours. so i dont know if i can count that i have been to sofia. i left the airport but i didnt see anything.

Same

Got everything but Idaho. Kinda surprised West Virginia failed to make the list, even though I've been there several times myself.

I drove through West Virginia frequently when I lived in Ohio. Personally I don't consider that having "visited" there, but probably others would.

yeah I guess there's that little bit that sticks out to the east that many people drive through when traveling between Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. But at most they might stop to visit a gas station or convenience store.

They are missing some great hiking and white water rafting. Getting to the Carolinas or VA from OH, MI, IN, Western PA or NY etc nearly requires travel through WV.

I guess I'm one of the few of people who actually visited the state.

I also actually visited but only because we have some relatives there.

We have visited a few times, proximity probably help though

Delaware is in a similar situation. I wonder how many people included Delaware because of a trip on I-95 or a stop on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor rather than an actual visit to the state.

I don't know anyone besides vacationers from DC and Maryland and a couple of corporate lawyers who have actually visited Delaware.

I've got a friend who lives in Wilmington and I visited a couple times. Plus, they've got the original Fight Club franchise there.

I think a lot of people go there for business. A lot of corporate HQ are there because of the tax advantages.

I actually doubt that people visit for that reason. Most of those businesses registered there for tax reasons have no real office space; just a place for official mail to be delivered. I've dealt with dozens of Delaware incorporated businesses, and if I had to visit them, it was never to Delaware.

I'm originally from the NoVA area. The only local-ish beaches I've ever been to are Virginia Beach (probably 2-3x), Ocean City, Maryland (2-3x), Chincoteague (once), and Rehoboth Beach (once) which is in Delaware but the opposite end of the state. I can list multiple far-off states and at least seven different countries with beaches I've visited more often than the ones around here, which to me never really seemed worth going to.

Brit here. West Virginia is one of the only states I have visited, but I expect I'm probably an exception.

I'm not very well traveled and I've been to 3 of these states. Granted one is a neighboring state and another is a neighbor of that one. I'm really surprised at how low Alaska is on this list.

i guess i'm apart of the 5% who has been to North Dakota

I was born there. It was really cold and there were a lot of storms all the time.

Sounds like Florida but cold.

Except Acadia... a place that a LOT of northeastern JetPunkers visit... while tell me how many JetPunkers live near Kansas? And what to even do there...

So less than 10% of "state map filler outers" have been to South Dakota? Bummer. Really owe it to yourselves to spend a bit of time at Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills. Seriously beautiful country, the Badlands are amazing, and some really cool caving as well.

I was a bit surprised by SD being on this list as well, I thought Mount Rushmore was widely visited by Americans.

It is extremely difficult for most of us to get to Mt. Rushmore. I believe the closest truly decent-sized airport is Minneapolis, which is an 8-hour drive away.

South Dakota campaigned to get Mount Rushmore put there precisely because there's no other reason to visit.

I went to South Dakota while on a road trip to Yellowstone. We got to see Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands. It was definitely worth then time spent there.

The only one here I haven't been to is Alaska, and I'm dying to go. But I think all the states are wonderful, you just need to get to know them.

Quite interesting to see alaska there, I would expect more tourism there since it has so much natural beauty. Also, I lived in Montana for 5 years, reccommended if you like national parks, beautiful state as well

Yes

As the story goes, when Indiana had a contest a few years ago for a new license plate slogan someone submitted "Indiana: Bring Something To Do."

How did you compile this?

Is a country version coming up?

I'm really skeptical about a couple of these. Maine, Rhode island and Delaware are tiny and/or really out of the way. I've always heard people say I saw all the New England states in a single day. Maybe it's a matter of perception. To me visited means that you walked outside for a couple of hours, but some may think as long as my car or train went through it or my plane landed there it counts while others might say visited only happens after spending a couple of days. One thing that might skew numbers is foreign travelers. You can fly into New York get a car and hit about 15 states in a week. For someone that might never come back to the country that sounds a lot more appealing than flying into Houston driving the same distance and not hitting another state.

Those state are also close to the most densely-populated area of the country, and they're small, which helps. Lots of people from Boston dip into the other New England states because they're easy to hit. Providence is a 45-minute train ride from Boston. When I lived in Boston, sometimes we'd take the train to Providence just to do something new. Ditto New Hampshire. You've got the skiing in Vermont. Leafpeeping in Maine. People from New York and New Jersey come up with ease too. That area is so tiny that you can drive from anywhere. Compare that to the states on this list, all of which are sparsely populated, enormous (i.e., it's unlikely you'll just pop into and out of one), and whose biggest cities are not really driving distance from any population centers. It's a much bigger commitment to get to them, so fewer people make the effort.

I read leafpeeing... thought wow people go especially to a state for that? Still dont know what it is though..

I love the things people are/get skeptical about

Seems pretty accurate. I've been to all but 10 states, and 7 of those are in this list.

@idontkn1: Maine, Rhode Island, and Delaware are all close to major metropolitan areas, so get a lot of visitors. Maine is the most out of the way, but it still isn't too far from Boston and has Acadia National Park, which is the 7th most visited national park in the country. Rhode Island is an hour or so from Boston, and you have to pass through Delaware to get from Baltimore/DC to Philadelphia/NYC, so almost anyone who lives in any of those cities passes through Delaware pretty regularly.

Genuine question, not trying to be rude. But for those of you who live in these states, why? These all fit the bill of states that if you can leave, you do. But surely that isn't everyone?

I'm from Pennsylvania, and other than the two major cities everybody I know just wants to leave. And PA certainly has more to do than North Dakota or Mississippi. Looking for some insight.

Some people prefer the attractions outside cities. Alaska, Idaho, and North Dakota in particular have strong economies, beautiful natural landscapes, and abundant recreation opportunities.

There are plenty of dive bars to get black out drunk at 8am in any town in north dakota if the population is over 10,000 (there are a few of them and I made a quiz about it), so there is that to do. You're not rude though, I left because, yes, I could and did. Many are flocking there because of jobs though which encouraged me to leave even more. There is much good there to be fair, but I like the travel lifestyle.

quizes by jetpunkers is a good idea

really suprised texas didn't make it

North Dakota represent! You suckers are missing out... on nothing. There is nothing worth seeing in my home state, look away, pass by, nothing to see there... The money spent on add campaigns for tourism is funny though. I've been traveling for work and seen advertisements about "legendary" or what have you and it cracks me up. Oof da.

What's a "North Dakota"?

Yellowstone (Also drive through state, I guess)

I live one of these and been two seven of them Owo

Maine is pretty easily reachable from Boston and other population centers in the NE. On a work trip to Boston once, I spent my evening driving up to Kennebunk in Maine for dinner, then drove home. No problem.

As a South Dakotan, I've been to 4 of these. Never been to North Dakota though, which shows just how boring the state really is.

I am surprised Wyoming is not on the list

I'm guessing that's solely because of Yellowstone.

Alabama is a huge tourist destination??

Jokes aside, it's too bad that states like Montana and Alaska are on here. Neither of them get a lot of publicity, but I've heard both places are beautiful and they've both been on my bucket list. I'm guessing remoteness is probably a factor working against them though.

Ive been to alaska yay :D never been to ND though...

I have been to none of these states, so getting them all was relatively easy. The only one I got stumped on was Mississippi. Great quiz!

I've been to all 50 states - have any other quizzers done that? Dan, since you can access the states-visited info for everyone, are you able to do a graph of the % of quizzers who have visited each number of states? Finally, do the percentages in this quiz include those who haven't visited any states at all?

It's actually fairly non-partisan I think, an example of correlation not causation. Sparsely populated, rural states like the ones on this list tend to be Republican. Accessing many of these places can be inconvenient, as they don't have major cities with direct flights. This is compounded by the fact that these states aren't very close to other very populous states, which makes it also makes it difficult to drive to them. You can contrast this with West Virginia and Kentucky, which are also rural but are also close to larger population centers like Pennsylvania and Illinois, making them somewhat more frequent stopping points on car trips.

TL;DR: I think it relates to demographics and geography, not policy. (Also, for the record, I think there's plenty to still see/do in many of these states, it's just a matter of inconvenience.)

I haven't been to any states on this list, but I've been to 17!

I've never been to Spain, but at least I've been to Oklahoma!