June 22, 2015 2:39PM # Which States Have the Most Libertarians? By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) --- SHARE In 2010 I blogged about which states have the strongest libertarian constituencies, using some data from political scientist Jason Sorens, founder of the Free State Project, and also 1980 Libertarian Party results from Bill Westmiller. That column can be found [here](https://www.cato.org/blog/where-are-libertarians), complete with graphics. Now Sorens has [updated his results](https://pileusblog.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/where-the-libertarians-are-part-2/) with 2012 data added to 2004 and 2008. As he notes, the results are fairly similar. You still find the most libertarians in the [rugged individualist states of the mountain West](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6862) plus New Hampshire. The mountain states were also best for Ed Clark, the Libertarian nominee back in 1980. As I noted previously, New Hampshire was in the bottom 10 for Clark, but near the top in [Sorens’s ranking in 2010](https://pileusblog.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/estimating-the-liberty-bloc-in-each-state-part-2/) and a bit higher this time. I’m not really sure what caused the change. Sorens notes that “Vermont, Maine, Kentucky, and Texas have gained, while Michigan, Idaho, Indiana, and Georgia have fallen” in the later calculations. I pointed out previously that Kentucky, my home state, was dead last for the Libertarian candidate in 1980. And it didn’t do very well in Sorens’s 2010 ranking either. Since June 2010, of course, Kentucky has elected the most libertarian member of the Senate, Rand Paul, and one of the most libertarian House members, Thomas Massie. So it’s about time the state’s voters started moving up the libertarian rankings, albeit only slightly. Here’s Sorens’s [latest ranking](https://pileusblog.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/where-the-libertarians-are-part-2/): > state libertarians > Montana 5.504036 > New Hampshire 4.163368 > Alaska 3.586032 > New Mexico 3.319092 > Idaho 2.842685 > Nevada 2.477748 > Texas 1.632528 > Washington 1.568113 > Oregon 1.180586 > Arizona 1.0411 > North Dakota 0.7316829 > Indiana 0.6056806 > California 0.5187439 > Vermont 0.4731389 > Utah 0.2056809 > Colorado 0.1532149 > Kansas 0.107657 > South Dakota 0.0328709 > Maine ‑0.0850015 > Pennsylvania ‑0.2063729 > Iowa ‑0.3226413 > Georgia ‑0.3296589 > Virginia ‑0.3893113 > Maryland ‑0.4288172 > Rhode Island ‑0.470931 > Tennessee ‑0.4882021 > Missouri ‑0.4912609 > Arkansas ‑0.5384682 > Louisiana ‑0.5897537 > Nebraska ‑0.6350928 > Minnesota ‑0.7662109 > Michigan ‑0.7671053 > North Carolina ‑0.811959 > South Carolina ‑0.8196676 > Illinois ‑0.9103957 > Ohio ‑0.9599612 > Delaware ‑1.057948 > Florida ‑1.072601 > District of Columbia ‑1.091851 > New York ‑1.225912 > Kentucky ‑1.330388 > Massachusetts ‑1.342607 > Wisconsin ‑1.410286 > New Jersey ‑1.431843 > Connecticut ‑1.606663 > Alabama ‑1.863769 > Oklahoma ‑1.93511 > West Virginia ‑2.244921 > Mississippi ‑2.519249 Lots of technical background can be found at [Sorens’s post on the Pileus blog](https://pileusblog.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/where-the-libertarians-are-part-2/). More on the broader libertarian vote [here](http://find.cato.org/search?q=libertarian+vote&op=Search&client=default_frontend&output=xml_no_dtd&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&entsp=a__cato_policy_drew0115&wc=200&wc_mc=1&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&ud=1&exclude_apps=1&site=default_collection) and especially in [this ebook](http://store.cato.org/libertarian-vote-swing-voters-tea-parties-fiscally-conservative-socially-liberal-center-digital). ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).