I found the most Midwestern state

Quick Overview

Minnesota ultimately won the competition to determine the most Midwestern state across ten rounds of voting, scoring 85 points, narrowly beating Iowa (83 points) in the final tally, while other rounds analyzed factors like food, demographics, climate, and linguistic data to define regional identity.

Key Points: Minnesota was declared the most Midwestern state overall after 10 rounds of voting, securing 85 points, just ahead of Iowa with 83 points. The ranking system involved 10 rounds testing different criteria, including food (Round 1), population density (Round 2), climate (Round 3), flatness (Round 4), demographics/whiteness (Round 5), political leanings (Round 6), corn production (Round 7), soybean production (Round 8), slang (Round 9), and Dairy Queen/Runza density (Rounds 1, 10). In the 'Food Ranking' (Round 1), Cheese Curds (Wisconsin) ranked highest with 10 points, followed by Casserole (9 points). The 'Demographics' round (Round 5) showed Minnesota and Wisconsin having the highest percentage of residents identifying as Hmong ancestry alone or in combination (1% or more), while the ethnically least diverse states included Maine, West Virginia, Vermont, and New Hampshire. In the 'Slang' round (Round 9), 'Ope' ranked first (10 points), followed by 'Pop (not "soda")' (9 points), highlighting linguistic differences within the region. Data sources included the US Census for ethnic diversity and agricultural data for corn and soybean acreage, often showing strong Midwestern cores for these metrics. The final Dairy Queen density metric showed Minnesota leading with 222 locations, while Texas had the most locations overall (584).

Context: The video documents a multi-round competition designed to definitively rank US states on how 'Midwestern' they are, utilizing various quantitative and qualitative metrics sourced from different studies and data sets. The host, Phil Edwards, presents data from rounds covering food preferences, demographic composition, climate, linguistic usage, agriculture, and business distribution to determine the ultimate 'Midwestest' state.