Patriotism is one of those words Americans use like everyone already agrees on what it means. Love of country. Pride in the flag. A lump in your throat at the anthem.
But in a constitutional republic, patriotism is not just an emotion. It is a set of habits. The boring, sturdy kind. Showing up. Serving. Voting. Sitting on a jury. Volunteering. Doing the work of self-government even when no one is watching and no one is clapping.
As the nation moves deeper into the 250th anniversary era, one big question keeps resurfacing: which states are actually living that civic promise, not just talking about it?
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How patriotism is measured
No ranking can capture the full soul of a place. But you can measure behaviors that map closely to constitutional citizenship. In mid-June, WalletHub compared all 50 states across 13 key indicators that fall into two broad buckets:
- Military engagement: measures tied to enlistment, active-duty presence, and veterans per capita.
- Civic engagement: voting, volunteering (including national service programs), and civic duties such as jury service.
That framework matters because it reflects what the Constitution assumes about us. The document does not run on vibes. It runs on participation.
Top five states
Across the combined military and civic indicators, five states stand out in this year’s ranking: Virginia, Montana, Vermont, Colorado, and Oregon.
They are not clustered in one region. That is the first lesson. Patriotism, at least as measured through service and civic participation, is not owned by a coastline, a party, a rural identity, or a city identity. It shows up wherever citizens treat the republic like something they are responsible for.
1) Virginia
Virginia lands at the top overall, ranking third in military engagement and seventh in civic engagement. Once you look at the numbers, the placement makes sense.
- Military presence: For every 100,000 civilians in Virginia, there are nearly 1,761 active-duty military personnel, the third-most in the country.
- Veterans per capita: For every 1,000 civilians, there are nearly 103 veterans, the second-most nationwide.
- Voting: 72.9% of residents voted in the 2024 presidential election, compared with a 66% national average.
Virginia also scores strongly on civic participation beyond Election Day. It has the fifth-highest number of Peace Corps volunteers per capita, and it is among the states that require a standalone civics course for high school graduation. If you want a picture of what constitutional continuity looks like in daily life, it is hard to beat that combination: a heavy service footprint plus a steady pipeline of civic participation.
2) Montana
Montana’s high placement is a reminder that patriotism can look like quiet seriousness. Less spectacle, more follow-through.
- 2024 turnout: 69.2% of Montana’s voting population turned out for the 2024 presidential election.
- Primary participation: Nearly 46% voted in the 2020 primary election, the highest primary turnout in the country.
- Service and duty: The state ranked second in jury service and had the second-highest number of AmeriCorps volunteers.
- Volunteering: About 37% of residents volunteer with an organization in general.
That mix is almost a civics textbook brought to life: vote often, volunteer often, and treat jury service like what it is, a direct exercise of popular sovereignty.
3) Vermont
Vermont’s placement reflects a model of patriotism rooted in community-scale citizenship: high participation and a culture that treats civic life as normal rather than extraordinary.
4) Colorado
Colorado’s strong showing fits a pattern seen in several high-ranking states: civic engagement that extends beyond elections into service, volunteering, and ongoing participation in public life.
5) Oregon
Oregon rounds out the top five. In rankings like these, that typically signals consistent performance across several indicators rather than dominance in only one.
Why these metrics matter
The Constitution does not command you to feel grateful. It cannot order you to be proud. What it does is create a structure where your participation is the fuel.
Voting connects directly to representation. Volunteering and national service connect to the health of civil society, the space between the individual and the state where democracy either thrives or collapses into cynicism. Jury service is one of the most literal ways ordinary citizens share in the administration of justice. And military service, for those who choose it, is tied to the Constitution’s promise to provide for the common defence and to preserve the republic’s security so the rest of civic life can continue.
WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo summarized the pattern this way: “The most patriotic states have a lot of residents who serve or have served in the armed forces, high voter turnouts during elections, and a high share of the population volunteering with national or local organizations.” That is not poetry. It is a checklist of constitutional maintenance.
Bottom of the list
Every ranking needs humility. Being low on a composite index does not mean citizens in those states love the country less. It often means the measurable behaviors used here are lower, whether due to demographics, migration patterns, civic infrastructure, or how state systems channel participation.
Still, the mid-June ranking placed Arkansas at 50th overall, followed by New York, Louisiana, and Alabama.
It is also worth noting a finding that complicates the usual political stereotypes: using this methodology, the 19 states that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 averaged higher than the 31 states that voted for Donald Trump. At the same time, several large states that voted Democratic ranked relatively low, including Illinois (37th), California (40th), and New York (49th).
The takeaway is not that one political tribe is more patriotic. The takeaway is that the things we can count, turnout, volunteering, service, do not always align neatly with the stories we tell ourselves about who owns love of country.
A definition worth keeping
If you want a definition of patriotism that can survive a news cycle, try this one: patriotism is commitment to the constitutional system, expressed in repeatable actions.
That is why Virginia and Montana rise so high in the numbers. They reflect two different versions of the same civic posture. One is shaped by proximity to national defense institutions and dense civic infrastructure. The other is shaped by an unusually strong culture of showing up, including in primaries and juries, not just general elections.
As America marks its 250th, the most patriotic states are not the ones with the loudest slogans. They are the ones where more people keep the machinery of self-government from rusting out.