Most Racist States 2025
State | # of Hate Crimes per 10k Pop | # of Hate Crimes 2023 | % of Hate Crimes with Racial/Ethnic/Ancestry Bias 2023 | # of Hate Groups 2023 | SDG Score 2021 | Location Quotient of Racist Post-Election Tweets 2012 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Alabama | 0.36 | 187 | 58.3% | 20 | 27.8 | 8.1 |
 | Alaska | 0.282 | 21 | 47.6% | 5 | 33.3 | |
 | Arizona | 0.332 | 255 | 52.9% | 39 | 33.1 | 0.2 |
 | Arkansas | 0.0998 | 31 | 58.1% | 15 | 28.3 | 1.9 |
 | California | 0.533 | 2,114 | 52.4% | 117 | 35 | 0.5 |
 | Colorado | 0.477 | 287 | 51.2% | 30 | 37 | 1.9 |
 | Connecticut | 0.294 | 109 | 44% | 14 | 33.3 | 0.5 |
 | Delaware | 0.187 | 20 | 50% | 3 | 31.3 | 1.3 |
 | District of Columbia | 2.62 | 188 | 55.3% | 13 | 1.5 | |
 | Florida | 0.104 | 249 | 48.6% | 114 | 32 | 1.3 |
 | Georgia | 0.126 | 142 | 57% | 49 | 32 | 3.6 |
 | Hawaii | 0.172 | 25 | 68% | 9 | 45.6 | |
 | Idaho | 0.256 | 52 | 63.5% | 25 | 42.2 | |
 | Illinois | 0.272 | 347 | 54.5% | 39 | 26.3 | 1.5 |
 | Indiana | 0.264 | 184 | 58.7% | 31 | 20.8 | 0.3 |
 | Iowa | 0.211 | 69 | 56.5% | 10 | 32.7 | 0.4 |
 | Kansas | 0.442 | 132 | 53.8% | 10 | 32.2 | 2.4 |
 | Kentucky | 0.361 | 167 | 54.5% | 18 | 29.5 | 1.9 |
 | Louisiana | 0.128 | 59 | 56.3% | 8 | 25.6 | 3.3 |
 | Maine | 0.383 | 54 | 48.3% | 12 | 40.4 | 0.9 |
 | Maryland | 0.42 | 265 | 55.8% | 25 | 35 | 1.6 |
 | Massachusetts | 0.874 | 630 | 45.2% | 13 | 36.5 | 0.5 |
 | Michigan | 0.376 | 383 | 60.8% | 36 | 31.4 | 0.6 |
 | Minnesota | 0.358 | 209 | 49.8% | 22 | 34.3 | 2.7 |
 | Mississippi | 0.0578 | 17 | 64.7% | 4 | 30.9 | 7.4 |
 | Missouri | 0.326 | 205 | 55.1% | 27 | 27.8 | 3.0 |
 | Montana | 0.0962 | 11 | 45.4% | 17 | 36.6 | |
 | Nebraska | 0.311 | 63 | 38% | 13 | 33.7 | 1.1 |
 | Nevada | 0.349 | 116 | 67.4% | 15 | 32.7 | 0.5 |
 | New Hampshire | 0.268 | 38 | 42.1% | 16 | 39.9 | 0.8 |
 | New Jersey | 1.48 | 1,422 | 51.3% | 21 | 31.2 | 0.5 |
 | New Mexico | 0.206 | 44 | 50% | 5 | 32.9 | 1.6 |
 | New York | 0.524 | 1,048 | 31.9% | 63 | 32.9 | 0.3 |
 | North Carolina | 0.262 | 294 | 58.5% | 50 | 32.8 | 1.5 |
 | North Dakota | 0.274 | 22 | 54.4% | 7 | 30.9 | 3.5 |
 | Ohio | 0.384 | 459 | 48.1% | 50 | 26.6 | 1.4 |
 | Oklahoma | 0.153 | 63 | 79% | 17 | 31.9 | 0.5 |
 | Oregon | 0.734 | 315 | 60.3% | 23 | 43.1 | 1.5 |
 | Pennsylvania | 0.227 | 298 | 53% | 78 | 24.1 | 0.7 |
 | Rhode Island | 0.25 | 28 | 50% | 10 | 32.6 | |
 | South Carolina | 0.206 | 115 | 60.9% | 33 | 35.3 | 1.4 |
 | South Dakota | 0.118 | 11 | 54.5% | 12 | 35.6 | |
 | Tennessee | 0.145 | 106 | 54.7% | 37 | 32.1 | 3.1 |
 | Texas | 0.164 | 521 | 55.1% | 97 | 29.8 | 1.3 |
 | Utah | 0.542 | 193 | 36.3% | 20 | 32.5 | 3.5 |
 | Vermont | 0.802 | 52 | 58.1% | 3 | 41.5 | |
 | Virginia | 0.309 | 275 | 63.2% | 45 | 32 | 1.5 |
 | Washington | 0.773 | 623 | 48.6% | 41 | 37.6 | 1.0 |
 | West Virginia | 0.379 | 67 | 43.3% | 12 | 27.6 | 2.8 |
 | Wisconsin | 0.247 | 148 | 49.3% | 28 | 28.2 | 1.9 |
 | Wyoming | 0.356 | 21 | 47.6% | 9 | 34.1 | |
 | United States | 0.371 | 12,754 | 1,430 |
- Hate crimes in this data include offenses motivated by bias against race/ethnicity/ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity.
- The number of hate groups includes both local and national organizations operating within the state.
- SDG Ranking measures each state’s progress toward achieving all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a focus on racial equity. It reflects the progress of the most disadvantaged racial group in areas like education, healthcare, income, and justice. A higher score means smaller racial disparities, while a lower score suggests larger gaps. Since it highlights racial inequalities, a low SDG score may indicate systemic racism in policies and societal structures.
- Location Quotient indicates the prevalence of racist tweets following the 2012 election compared to the number of non-racist tweets (1.0) in a given state. For example, a location quotient of 1.0 would indicate that racist and non-racist tweets occurred with roughly equal frequency. An LQ of 2.5 would indicate that racist tweets were 2.5 times more frequent than non-racist tweets, and an LQ of 0.5 would indicate that racist tweets were half as common as non-racist tweets.
Racism is defined as prejudice or discrimination against people of different races. A racist person believes that his or her race is superior, while other races are inferior. While Americans might think that racism is most prevalent in the United States, it is considered more welcoming and accepting than many other countries. Some of the most racist countries are Bahrain, Lebanon, India, South Africa.
Racism in a given area isn’t something that can be measured like population or area. Polls and surveys can be used, but these aren’t always accurate. Other data, such as instances of hate crimes and hate speech, can also be used to determine where racism is most prevalent.
State | # of Hate Crimes 2023 |
|---|---|
| Montana | 11 |
| South Dakota | 11 |
| Mississippi | 17 |
| Delaware | 20 |
| Alaska | 21 |
| Wyoming | 21 |
| North Dakota | 22 |
| Hawaii | 25 |
| Rhode Island | 28 |
| Arkansas | 31 |
Because of this, it’s difficult to measure what states in the U.S. are the most racist. However, some organizations and publications have attempted to measure racism throughout the United States. The following contains some of these findings.
The apartment search website Abodo created a map outlining the most racist areas in the nation. The site used software that tracked over 12 million tweets posted in 2014 and 2016, filtering out tweets with racial slurs.
Based on these findings, West Virginia was revealed to be the most racist state. Maryland and Louisiana were also the most racist states based on racial slurs used on Twitter.
Another study was conducted by data scientist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz using Google search data. Based on this data, the study found that the most racist regions in the United States are the rural Northeast and South, which were slave states before the American Civil War. Searches containing racial slurs were most prevalent in the Appalachian region from Georgia to New York and Vermont. High concentrations of racist searches were discovered in areas along the Gulf Coast, the Upper Peninsula region in Michigan, and Ohio.
However, it is important to note that these findings aren’t an official ranking of racist states. These studies give some idea of areas in the nation where racism may occur. Some of the states that have made the most racial progress are New Mexico, Hawaii, and Wyoming.
Sources
- Hate Map - Southern Poverty Law Center
- The Most Racist States in the U.S. Aren't Where You'd Expect - HowStuffWorks
- Where America's Racist Tweets Come From - The Atlantic
- Mapping Racist Tweets in Response to President Obama's Re-election
- Ranking for USA states - Sustainable Development Solutions Network
