Is New York the Nerdiest State in America?

Hold onto your d20! A search for the nation's nerdiest state found facts you won't believe are true about New York.

New York is a nerd's wonderland - that's an objective fact. It's home to New York Comic Con. It's the setting of numerous comic books and geek-tastic movies like Ghostbusters.

And... It's also the state where millions of geeks call home.

New national roundup alert

Turns out, millions of nerds call New York their home. But despite the Empire State  being a place of pilgrimage for those who love anime, comics, collectibles and more - it's not the country's #1 place for nerds.

Casino.org polled the nerds of the nation to find "the dorky divisions across the country." They polled trekkies, techies, bookworms and more to narrow down this list.

Out of all 50 states, Rhode Island was crowned the nation's nerdiest state while Kentucky claimed second place and Iowa took third. When scaling down the data to find the nerdiest city in the continental U.S., the title went to Austin, Texas.

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On the flipside, Maine identified itself as the coolest state with 75 percent of respondents saying they weren't nerdy at all. Washington D.C., and Delaware tied in second place for being the "coolest" states.

The nerds of New York

While the Empire State wasn't the nerdiest of all, it did secure a spot within the country's top 10 nerdiest cities.

Newark, New York, finished in eighth place - one spot behind Salem, Massachusetts, and a slice above Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Our state was also found to still be fantastically nerd-tastic, with nearly half of all New Yorkers, roughly 45 percent, identifying as nerds.

The roundup didn't just rank states by geeks per capita - it also looked into the kind of nerds that live in each state.

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New York's largest demographic is the tech geek, if you must know. Their population beats out the internet geeks as well as the book lovers, movie buffs, sports fans, history nerds and gamers out of the water.

Other facts for the poindexters

Want to know what profession had the most nerds? Prepare to be amazed... because it was the lawyers. Marketing and media employees made up the second highest number of geeks and dorks while public service workers rounded out the top 3.

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When it comes to salary, the nerdiest job with the highest salary was the data scientist, which rakes in an average of $140,000 annually. Enterprise architect placed second with earnings averaging at $138,000 while Software Architect came third with a salary of $133,000.

And when it came down to what fandom was most popular among nerds, it was the Harry Potter franchise, followed by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Anime came in third.

And, when it comes to the signature tells of what makes a nerd, 70 percent of respondents said it was cosplay. Comic books were second while binging Anime rounded the top 3.

Methodology

For those who want to know how "scientific" this roundup is, here is how Casino.org collected its data:

We surveyed over 2,000 Americans in August 2023 about nerd culture, following external research. The age range was between 18-70 with all participants currently residing in the United States. Of the respondents, 51% were male, 47.1% were female and 1.9% were transgender or non-binary.

As for me and whether or not I identify as a nerd. Literally walk into my office, look at my decorations, and find out for yourself.

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