Ahead of Independence Day weekend, personal finance company WalletHub released a study ranking the states with the most and the least self-sufficient residents to find “the most independent” state in the country. Florida ranked in the top three “most independent” states. But what does that mean?
“With inflation affecting people across the country, many Americans are struggling to maintain financial independence,” the study said. “Some have become at least temporarily more dependent on support from the federal government.”
To find the states with the most financially independent residents, WalletHub compared each state based on five categories of dependency: consumer finances, the government, the job market, international trade and personal vices.
Those categories were broken down into 39 key indicators of independence, from the share of households receiving public assistance, to the unemployment rate, to the share of adults with gambling disorders.
Here’s WalletHub’s list of the top five most independent states in the U.S., where Florida ranks and why.
What state depends the least on the federal government?
According to WalletHub’s study, the least federally-dependent state in the U.S. is Utah.
“Utah is the most independent state in America, in part because very few people receive government benefits,” the study says.
“Utah has an extremely low percentage of people with public assistance income (1.6%) or who receive SNAP or food stamps (5.6%). The state ranks as one of the least dependent on federal funding, as well.”
Colorado landed in second place and Florida rounded out the top three.
Here’s WalletHub’s list of the top five states that are least dependent on the federal government:
- Utah
- Colorado
- Florida
- Wisconsin
- Vermont
Is Florida dependent on the federal government?
According to the study, Florida’s low unemployment rate and high employment growth rate keep the state one of the most independent in the U.S.
“Florida residents are doing pretty well financially. The unemployment rate is just 3.1%, and the state has the ninth-best employment growth rate in the country,” the study said.
“In addition, only 1.3% of mortgages in the state are seriously underwater, the sixth-lowest rate nationally.”
Another reason for Florida’s high “independence” ranking is because it has one of the earliest “tax freedom days” in the U.S.
“A state’s tax freedom day is the number of days since the start of the year that its residents have collectively earned enough money to pay their federal, state and local tax bills for the year,” the study said.
“For Florida, this happens only 93 days into the year (compared to 122 days for the slowest state).”
Which states depend most on the federal government?
As for the least federally-independent states, Louisiana took first place, scoring high in the financial dependency, government dependency, job market dependency and international trade dependency categories.
Louisiana is closely followed by Kentucky and Mississippi.
Here’s WalletHub’s list of the top five states that are the most dependent on the federal government:
- Louisiana
- Kentucky
- Mississippi
- Alaska
- West Virginia
