The word “selfie” has been officially added to the Oxford Online Dictionary, right alongside “emoji” and “twerk.” What a time to be alive.
Selfies and selfie-takers are everywhere. Influencers, Instagram boyfriends, and narcissists are in full swing (along with parents who always seem to take photos from the optimal below-the-neck/double chin angle). Factor in the invention of the selfie stick in 2005, and we’ve just been going downhill from there.
We at All Home Connections got curious about which states are the most vain and selfie-obsessed. We used Twitter data to track #selfie users in each state, then determined which states are the “selfiest” in America. Think you can guess the top five? Check out the results below and see if you picked a winner.
Some Tips for the Selfie Lovers Out There:
- Left cheek selfies get more likes than right cheek. So if you’re gonna take a selfie, do it right. And by right, we mean left.
- The most popular days to post selfies are Sundays, Saturdays, and Tuesdays. Sunday selfies come in first place of all #selfie tweets. After a long week, a little self love goes a long way.
- Nevada, Washington D.C., Hawaii, New York, and California are the top selfiest states. Selfie your way across America with an Elvis impersonator in Vegas, then Abe Lincoln in DC, then the rainbow bagel you bought in Brooklyn that you’re now holding up as a monocle.
- If you love to selfie, avoid Mississippi, Iowa, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Oklahoma. Selfies aren’t so popular around those parts.
- Be careful. There have been more than 250 selfie-related deaths since 2011. Next time you think about snapping a selfie while standing at the edge of a waterfall, near train tracks, on a busy road, or while driving or flying a plane, think again.
- Switch up your hashtags when #selfie isn’t doing it for you. The other top 10 Twitter tags posted alongside #selfie are #me, #love, #instagood, #photooftheday, #cute, #fashion, #happy, #smile, #art, #picoftheday. Because nothing says #blessed like the gift of your face on someone else’s phone.
Methodology
We collected over 11,000 geocoded tweets containing “#selfie” over the course of four months (November 2018 through March 2019). Geocoded tweets account for .85% of all tweets, so we used the data we collected to predict the approximate number of #selfie Tweets per capita posted annually in each state.
| State | Rank: The Selfiest States | State Population | Collected Geo Tweets | Predicted #selfie Tweets per 100,000 people | Predicted #selfie Tweets per Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nevada | 1 | 2,998,039 | 436 | 5,132.80 | 153,882 |
| District of Columbia | 2 | 693,972 | 88 | 4,475.50 | 31,059 |
| Hawaii | 3 | 1,427,538 | 144 | 3,560.20 | 50,824 |
| New York | 4 | 19,849,399 | 1,478 | 2,628.00 | 521,647 |
| California | 5 | 39,536,653 | 2,528 | 2,256.70 | 892,235 |
| Florida | 6 | 20,984,400 | 1,164 | 1,957.80 | 410,824 |
| Oregon | 7 | 4,142,776 | 206 | 1,755.00 | 72,706 |
| Georgia | 8 | 10,429,379 | 394 | 1,333.30 | 139,059 |
| Massachusetts | 9 | 6,859,819 | 250 | 1,286.30 | 88,235 |
| Rhode Island | 10 | 1,059,639 | 37 | 1,232.40 | 13,059 |
| New Jersey | 11 | 9,005,644 | 312 | 1,222.80 | 110,118 |
| Arizona | 12 | 7,016,270 | 241 | 1,212.30 | 85,059 |
| Colorado | 13 | 5,607,154 | 188 | 1,183.40 | 66,353 |
| Illinois | 14 | 12,802,023 | 426 | 1,174.40 | 150,353 |
| Washington | 15 | 7,405,743 | 228 | 1,086.60 | 80,471 |
| Texas | 16 | 28,304,596 | 850 | 1,059.90 | 300,000 |
| Maine | 17 | 1,335,907 | 39 | 1,030.40 | 13,765 |
| Arkansas | 18 | 3,004,279 | 80 | 939.8 | 28,235 |
| Pennsylvania | 19 | 12,805,537 | 333 | 917.8 | 117,529 |
| Maryland | 20 | 6,052,177 | 143 | 833.9 | 50,471 |
| Nebraska | 21 | 1,920,076 | 45 | 827.2 | 15,882 |
| Virginia | 22 | 8,470,020 | 193 | 804.2 | 68,118 |
| Tennessee | 23 | 6,715,984 | 152 | 798.8 | 53,647 |
| Michigan | 24 | 9,962,311 | 222 | 786.5 | 78,353 |
| New Mexico | 25 | 2,088,070 | 46 | 777.5 | 16,235 |
| North Carolina | 26 | 10,273,419 | 225 | 773 | 79,412 |
| Connecticut | 27 | 3,588,184 | 78 | 767.2 | 27,529 |
| Alaska | 28 | 739,795 | 16 | 763.3 | 5,647 |
| Delaware | 29 | 961,939 | 20 | 733.8 | 7,059 |
| Ohio | 30 | 11,658,609 | 242 | 732.6 | 85,412 |
| Utah | 31 | 3,101,833 | 60 | 682.7 | 21,176 |
| Vermont | 32 | 623,657 | 12 | 679.1 | 4,235 |
| Louisiana | 33 | 4,684,333 | 87 | 655.5 | 30,706 |
| New Hampshire | 34 | 1,342,795 | 23 | 604.5 | 8,118 |
| South Carolina | 35 | 5,024,369 | 86 | 604.1 | 30,353 |
| Kentucky | 36 | 4,454,189 | 74 | 586.4 | 26,118 |
| Indiana | 37 | 6,666,818 | 109 | 577 | 38,471 |
| Missouri | 38 | 6,113,532 | 99 | 571.5 | 34,941 |
| Minnesota | 39 | 5,576,606 | 89 | 563.3 | 31,412 |
| Idaho | 40 | 1,716,943 | 27 | 555 | 9,529 |
| Alabama | 41 | 4,874,747 | 73 | 528.5 | 25,765 |
| Kansas | 42 | 2,913,123 | 39 | 472.5 | 13,765 |
| Wisconsin | 43 | 5,795,483 | 71 | 432.4 | 25,059 |
| Wyoming | 44 | 579,315 | 7 | 426.5 | 2,471 |
| Montana | 45 | 1,050,493 | 11 | 369.6 | 3,882 |
| South Dakota | 46 | 869,666 | 9 | 365.3 | 3,176 |
| Oklahoma | 47 | 3,930,864 | 38 | 341.2 | 13,412 |
| West Virginia | 48 | 1,815,857 | 17 | 330.4 | 6,000 |
| North Dakota | 49 | 755,393 | 6 | 280.3 | 2,118 |
| Iowa | 50 | 3,145,711 | 22 | 246.8 | 7,765 |
| Mississippi | 51 | 2,984,100 | 20 | 236.5 | 7,059 |
Can’t get enough of the #selfie life? Count on unlimited data from AT&T to post selfies anywhere and everywhere to your heart’s content.
All Home Connections is an authorized AT&T retailer. Reporters can email questions to media@attpublicity.com.