Which state is fullest of people born right there?
🔎 Skip to the answer (ranking table)Guess
Some people spend their whole life in the state where they were born; others arrive from somewhere else. Out of every 100 people living in a state, how many were born in that same state? Tap the states most-to-least.
Tapping assigns 1→4 in order
Texas! Everyone in Texas is a Texan, obviously 🐾
Answer
The real order is…
Louisiana — about 77 out of every 100 people living there were born there, more than 3 out of 4. Now look at the other end of the list: in Nevada it is 28.5 out of 100, fewer than 3 in 10. For the country as a whole the answer is about 56.5. And here is the part that trips people up — this is not about big or small, crowded or empty. Michigan and Ohio — the 10th and 7th most populous states — come #2 and #3, while Wyoming, the state with the fewest people in the country, sits near the bottom at about 40 out of 100. Texas? Right in the middle, at #25.
📚 Background Ask a hundred people in Louisiana where they were born and about 77 will answer: Louisiana. Ask the same question in Nevada and only about 29 will answer Nevada. What is strange about this map is what it does not follow. It is not about big or small, crowded or empty: Ohio and Michigan, the 7th and 10th most populous states, come right behind Louisiana, while Wyoming — the state with the fewest people in the country — sits near the bottom. A low number here has one plain meaning: most of the people living there came from somewhere else. (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024) (opens in a new tab)
🔍 Explore more: 📋『The number that comes with a give-or-take』→ Texas! Everyone in Texas is a Texan, obviously 🐾
Compare
Born in the state where they live (%, ACS 2024)
Most: Louisiana (77 %); fewest: Nevada (28.5 %).
Note: from the American Community Survey, which the Census Bureau sends to a sample of about 3.5 million addresses a year — not to everybody. So every number here is an estimate, published with a give-or-take. Everyone living in the state counts toward the 100, including people born in another country, so a state where many people arrived from abroad shows a smaller share. U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 1-year estimates.
So most people in Nevada came from somewhere else?! 🐾
Recap
🏅 Today's discovery
🏅 Louisiana is the USA's #1!
🐕 States in Numbers
Quiz a friend!
📋 See the ranking table (top 50)
| Rank | State | Value |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Louisiana | 77 % |
| #2 | Michigan | 75.1 % |
| #3 | Ohio | 74.3 % |
| #4 | Mississippi | 70 % |
| #5 | Pennsylvania | 69.6 % |
| #6 | Wisconsin | 69.4 % |
| #7 | Iowa | 68.5 % |
| #8 | West Virginia | 66.5 % |
| #9 | Indiana | 66.4 % |
| #9 | Minnesota | 66.4 % |
| #11 | Kentucky | 66.3 % |
| #12 | Alabama | 66.1 % |
| #13 | Illinois | 65.6 % |
| #14 | Missouri | 64.9 % |
| #15 | Nebraska | 62.5 % |
| #16 | South Dakota | 61.9 % |
| #17 | New York | 61.6 % |
| #18 | North Dakota | 60.3 % |
| #19 | Arkansas | 59.9 % |
| #20 | Utah | 59.5 % |
| #21 | Oklahoma | 59.1 % |
| #22 | Kansas | 59 % |
| #23 | Maine | 58.3 % |
| #24 | Massachusetts | 58 % |
| #25 | Texas | 57.1 % |
| #26 | California | 56.4 % |
| #27 | Tennessee | 55.9 % |
| #28 | Hawaii | 53.2 % |
| #29 | Connecticut | 52.8 % |
| #30 | Georgia | 52.7 % |
| #31 | North Carolina | 52.5 % |
| #32 | Rhode Island | 52 % |
| #33 | New Mexico | 51.4 % |
| #34 | Montana | 51.1 % |
| #35 | South Carolina | 50.7 % |
| #36 | New Jersey | 50.5 % |
| #37 | Virginia | 48.4 % |
| #38 | Vermont | 47.2 % |
| #39 | Maryland | 46.4 % |
| #40 | Washington | 46.3 % |
| #41 | Oregon | 45.4 % |
| #42 | Idaho | 43.4 % |
| #43 | Alaska | 43 % |
| #44 | Delaware | 42.5 % |
| #45 | Colorado | 40.9 % |
| #46 | New Hampshire | 40.5 % |
| #47 | Wyoming | 40.4 % |
| #48 | Arizona | 39.1 % |
| #49 | Florida | 34.7 % |
| #50 | Nevada | 28.5 % |
| 🇺🇸 USA (national figure) | 56.5 % |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2024 (ACS 1-year estimates))
Sources
Data as of: 2024 (ACS 1-year estimates)
U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey 2024 1-year profile DP02_0091PE (born in state of residence) (opens in a new tab) (2026-08-14) — Official published survey estimates (the committed raw file is the API response, unchanged). The American Community Survey goes to a sample of addresses, not to everybody, so every figure is an estimate published with a margin of error.
↳ On data.census.gov, open profile table “DP02” for 2024 and read DP02_0091PE (Place of birth — born in United States, state of residence) by state.