DENVER – Colorado residents are the most “independent” in the country, according to a new report from financial services website WalletHub.
What does that mean, exactly? They're not talking about unaffiliated voters.
WalletHub took a pretty wide-ranging approach to determining independence, trying to determine the extent to which people rely on the government or others in the areas of finance, employment and various vices, like drinking, smoking and gambling.
Some of the factors WalletHub weighed included debit-to-income ratios, poverty rates, share of households receiving public assistance, unemployment rates, number of illicit drug users and share of adults with gambling problems, among others.
The site looked at a total of 39 different indicators and based on all of those scores, Colorado came out on top of the list. Utah was second, following by Minnesota, Nebraska and Virginia rounding out the top five.
Here are the 10 most “independent” states in the country, according to WalletHub:
1. Colorado
2. Utah
3. Minnesota
4. Nebraska
5. Virginia
6. Hawaii
7. South Dakota
8. Massachusetts
9. Wisconsin
10. Kansas
The full report is available online at wallethub.com.
