Debates about "best" and "worst" cities elicit strong feelings. It's a tricky issue because such debates are largely subjective.
ADVERTISEMENT
The most exciting place to live in every state — and the most boring hometown you can have
Looking for nightlife? How about breweries, art dealers, and museums? Here's where you can find the most interesting — and most boring — city in every state.
ADVERTISEMENT
So Business Insider attempted to use data to definitively prove which are the most exciting and most boring cities in every state across America.
To do that, we took counts of the number of establishments for 66 different types of businesses — like breweries, art dealers, and museums — that can make a city more "interesting." We sourced data from the Census Bureau's 2015 County Business Patterns program and picked the metro areas with the highest and lowest count of these businesses for our interesting and boring cities.
For example, the New York City metro area has 62 breweries, 762 art dealers, and 305 museums, based on federal data. That ended up being the "most exciting" city in New York. Elmira, the "most boring" city in New York, has two breweries, zero art dealers, and four museums. Of course, this means that bigger cities tended to rank better as "exciting" cities, but that is a trend for most lists of this nature.
ADVERTISEMENT
The list below breaks out cities by each of the 381 Metropolitan Statistical Areas recognized by the federal government. You will see that some of the metro areas span more than one state (e.g. New York City includes Jersey City and Newark, New Jersey). We have made it clear in the slides below which metro areas span more than one state.
And two states — Rhode Island and Vermont — are not included in the list because they don't have at least two metro areas as defined by the federal government.
Read below to see the most exciting and most boring city in every state in America.
Alabama
Alaska
ADVERTISEMENT
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
ADVERTISEMENT
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
ADVERTISEMENT
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
ADVERTISEMENT
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
ADVERTISEMENT
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
ADVERTISEMENT
Nevada
Las Vegas, Henderson, Paradise, Nevada
New Hampshire
Boston, Cambridge, Massachusetts
New Jersey
ADVERTISEMENT
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
ADVERTISEMENT
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
South Dakota
ADVERTISEMENT
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Virginia
Washington
ADVERTISEMENT
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
FOLLOW BUSINESS INSIDER AFRICA
ADVERTISEMENT
Recommended articles
10 best airports in Africa in 2024
10 most expensive cities in Africa in 2024
Illegal money changers adapt to Zimbabwe's ZiG currency rollout
Zimbabwe's ZiG currency printing contingent on reserve sufficiency
The global workforce is set to collapse without Africa
500 millionaires fall off in Kenya - here’s why
Top 10 African countries with the most centi-millionaires in 2024
7 most influential Africans in the world 2024 -TIME