Iowa vs. Illinois: Which State Is Luckier And More Irish?

We are less than a week away from St. Patrick's Day. Soon you'll be seeing a lot of green. Green beer, green shirts, green beards, and hopefully more green grass. Before we get to St. Patty's Day, let's find out which side of the Mississippi River is more Irish and luckier.

Two new studies from our friends at Zippia has come out show how Irish and lucky each state is. I'll give you one hint, Iowa and Illinois actually did alright on these lists. One state did a lot better than the other, but we'll get to that.

To determine which states are more Irish, Zippia turned to US Census Ancestry data. From there, they simply divided the total number of residents with Irish ancestry by total number of residents. The higher percent of Irish residents, the more Irish the state is. Pretty easy, right?

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This map shows just how Irish each state is:

Iowa is apparently quite more Irish than Illinois. Iowa came in 12th on this list, while Illinois is the 20th most Irish state.

Not surprising at all, a state in the northeast part of the country came out on top. New Hampshire (which could be a little surprising beating out Massachusetts) is the most Irish state. Hawaii is the least Irish sate in America. Also not a huge shock there.

When it comes to finding out how lucky (or unlucky) a state is, that sounds a little tricky, but Zippia did it. To determine which states are lucky and unlucky, Zippia examined 6 factors to find the luckiest states: Those factors include:

Lotto winners
Median Income
Low unemployment
Average life expectancy
Weather fatalities
Car Accident Deaths Per 100k

After researching all of that data, they found which states are lucky, and which ones are not.

Between Iowa and Illinois, Iowa came out on top. Iowa is the 18th luckiest state, while Illinois landed in the middle of the pack at 25th.

I'm not sure how, but Minnesota is apparently the luckiest state in the union. The state where they have zero luck is Mississippi.