Patriotism can be a hard thing to measure. However, most would agree that signing on the dotted line and taking an oath to defend your nation, especially during our longest period of sustained conflict, is a decent marker of love of country. That’s the conclusion the researchers over at WalletHub came to in a June 27 report, “2017’s Most Patriotic States in America.” (The study did not include statistics for U.S. territories.)
So which state boasts the highest concentration of patriotic souls who decided to enlisted? Georgia, followed closely by South Carolina, Idaho, Alaska and Texas.
The report tracked the average number of military enlistees (not officers) per 1,000 civilian adults between 2010 and 2015. Georgia had 0.92 enlistees per 1,000 adults; the remaining top five came in between 0.85 and 0.82, according to Diana Popa, a communications manager at WalletHub.
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The five states with the lowest averages were Vermont, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and North Dakota at the bottom, with 0.36 enlistees per 1,000 adults.
For a top-level breakdown of the report, check out the infographic from WalletHub, below.
Update: This article has been updated to note that the study did not include statistics for U.S. territories.