United States

17.51Redneck IndexNational Average

51.5Conservative RankingNational Average

44.1%Household Gun OwnershipNational Average

Redneck Index 2016

1.137.2

1	Arkansas	37.2
2	Mississippi	35.1
3	New Mexico	33.1
4	Alabama	32.97
5	South Carolina	32.1
6	West Virginia	31.8
7	Wyoming	31.6
8	Kentucky	28.5
9	Louisiana	26.7
10	Oklahoma	25.9
11	North Carolina	25.6
12	Tennessee	25.4
13	South Dakota	24.3
14	Georgia	23.5
15	Idaho	22
16	Missouri	21.82
17	Montana	21.78
18	Arizona	21.2
19	Kansas	20.6
20	Texas	20.3
21	Florida	19
22	Maine	18.9
23	Iowa	18.4
24	Nebraska	18.2
25	Nevada	17.2
26	Indiana	17
27	Alaska	16.3
28	Delaware	15.94
29	Utah	15.6
30	Colorado	15.3
31	North Dakota	15.28
32	Virginia	14.6
33	Oregon	13.6
34	Vermont	12.5
35	Wisconsin	12.3
36	New Hampshire	11.8
37	Ohio	11.77
38	Washington	11.68
39	Pennsylvania	10.61
40	Michigan	10.55
41	Minnesota	9.2
42	Illinois	7.3
43	California	4.9
44	New York	4.6
45	Maryland	3.3
46	Connecticut	1.94
47	Rhode Island	1.93
48	Hawaii	1.6
49	Massachusetts	1.4
50	New Jersey	1.1

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Interactive Map
Redneck States
Most Redneck States
Source

Last updated February 28, 2026

Redneck States

The term "redneck" appeared in 1830 and described Presbyterians in Fayetteville, North Carolina, as "a white member of the Southern rural laboring class." This became used by the white elites as a pejorative term against lower-class white farmers, whose necks were sunburned from working in the fields. In 1885, anti-immigrant sentiment associated the term with “poor white trash”, supposedly “imported from the slums of England and Europe in the 17th century”.

Hillbilly states and redneck states often overlap, but the terms have distinct references. A "redneck" is associated with working-class, southern, and rural white Americans, while “hillibilly” focuses more on mountain geography, as defined by the Cambridge dictionary is ‘a person from a mountainous area of the US who has a simple way of life and is considered to be slightly stupid by people living in towns and cities’.

However, at the beginning of the 20th century, “redneck” was adopted by US coal miner union members. These miners wore red bandanas as a symbol of solidarity and to identify themselves during labor strikes, especially in coal-producing regions such as West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. They participated in the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921, the largest U.S. armed uprising since the Civil War.

Nowadays, as defined by the Cambridge dictionary, the “redneck” is ‘an insulting word for a white person thought of as poor and uneducated, and who lives in a country area of the US and has extreme conservative political opinions’. Given this, the data extracted from The World Ranking based their The Redneck Index on two key factors: 1) mobile homes per 100 housing units and 2) Walmarts per million people.

All Metrics

What is the Most Redneck State?

Arkansas is the most redneck state in the US with 37.2. Mississippi ranks 2nd at 35.1. New Mexico places 3rd at 33.1. Alabama ranks 4th at 32.97. South Carolina (32.1) places 5th, followed by West Virgina (31.8), Wyoming (31.6) and Kentuck (28.5). Louisiana ranks 9th at 26.7 Oklahoma completes the top 10 most redneck states with a score of 25.9.