Normal? Utah’s Not Normal? Who Knew?

A recent study put together by the Washington Post (beware of paywall if you click link) aimed to decide which state in the USA is the most "normal" of them all.

The study, used facts like age demographics, ethnicity, religious preference, income level, education level and social views (abortion, immigration, etc.).

Illinois, as it turns out, is the most "normal" state. In fact, the midwestern home to Chicago, Des Moines, Aurora and Northwestern University, has a "normalcy" profile that is almost dead on of the United States' profile.

But what about Utah?

As you may have guessed, Utah is anything but normal.

With the exception of Hawaii and Alaska, Utah is about as abnormal as it gets.

To quote the Post: "Almost without regard to who you compare them to, Hawaii, Utah and Alaska dangle off the chart as outliers."

The reasons for Hawaii and Alaska are obvious — they didn’t gain statehood until 1959. Hawaii is an island archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, while Alaska is a sparsely populated wilderness hundreds of miles from the rest of the United States, a mere stone's throw from Russia.

More from the Post: "Utah’s another classic outlier, thanks indirectly to the vigilantes and politicians who forced the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to leave Nauvoo, Ill., then almost as big as Chicago, and high-tail it to the Beehive State in 1846. As a result, Utah today is the youngest state by age, and it has the most religious adherents, pound for pound."

In other words, we're really not like the rest of the country, And I'm OK with that.

In Utah, we're religious, conservative, family-oriented and generally speaking, happy.

There's an old saying that I used to have splashed across my chest on a t-shirt. It read "Y B Normal?"

Indeed, if being a normal state means increased crime, homelessness and unhappiness, well then I'll take abnormal anytime.

Stay weird, Utah.

FYI, top five normal states are Illinois (home of the 50,000-resident town named Normal), Florida, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Michigan.

The bottom five: Alaska, Hawaii, Utah, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

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