The Force Is Strong In The State Of Utah

Today is May the Fourth, the unofficial Star Wars holiday, where Tattooine geeks and Ewok nerds celebrate the international force that is Star Wars.

And while Utah was recently ranked No. 1 by U.S. News and World Report as the best place to live in America, Utah was also recently crowned as the most fanatic (in a good way) state for Star Wars aficionados (a coincidence, hmmm, I think not).

You see, Utah got a perfect 400/400 score from Google Trends in its fanhood rating or per capita searches for Star Wars information. That's 100/100 the past four years in a row.

According to Mark Strotman from Bookies.com:

Here’s something we didn’t see coming: the same state ranking No. 1 on the list each of the years that we researched. But here’s Utah, ranking 100 on the Google Trends list in every single year of this survey (2020-2023). Go figure. Alaska wasn’t far behind at second overall, ranking third, second, third, and second in each of the respective year’s rankings. We tried to see if there was any special actor who resided in Utah or whether there’s a Star Wars museum in Alaska, but it seems it’s just a niche love for Star Wars in those two states.

For the record, one Utah locale did make the list of filming sites for Star Wars. The Bonneville Salt Flats were featured in Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi.

That's actually quite a feat considering most of the Star Wars movies were filmed across the world (Ireland and Iceland seem to be popular filming sites, but Star Wars scenes were also shot in Jordan, Norway, Thailand, China, England, Tunisia and Italy, among others).

In fact, except for a few California locations, Bonneville is the only place used in the Star Wars universe inside the United States.

If you're a Star Wars fan, and perhaps planning a trip to Skellig Michael in Ireland (maybe Luke Skywalker will be there), remember that Utah is the place to be for fans of The Force.

Oh, and a special treat for special Star Wars geeks: Star Wars Dad Jokes. Sample: Why did Jabba win the pizza contest? Because no one out-pizzas the Hutt.