America's State With The Friendliest People

When you're traveling to a new place, kind locals can make all the difference in whether or not you feel excited to explore the area. In the United States, regions such as the Midwest enjoy a particularly pleasant reputation, while locales like those in the Northeast are often said to swing in the opposite direction. The reasons why a community gains such stereotypes are complex, and definitive statements are hard to make when discussing matters as abstract as friendliness. Of course, that doesn't deter people from trying to arrive at a concrete answer. Drawing on information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey, financial education platform SmartAsset ran the numbers to find the country's friendliest states. The results? A first-place title for Montana as America's state with the friendliest people.

According to SmartAsset, "A range of factors contribute to a place's overall character, but the time residents spend socializing, volunteering and helping people outside their own homes can shape how friendly it feels." With this in mind, the company's rankings relied on three key metrics: the average minutes per day a state's residents spent 1. volunteering, 2. socializing, and 3. helping others.

Earning the top spot out of 50 total competitors, Montana recorded a daily average of 43.4 minutes spent socializing, 35.6 minutes volunteering, and 15.9 minutes helping others. Those stats add up to 94.9 minutes (or just over an hour and a half), placing Montana 3.2 minutes ahead of the second-place runner-up, Utah. These numbers are just part of the picture when it comes to assessing how friendly a location really is, though. So, let's dive a little deeper to discover what people really think about how welcoming people are in Big Sky Country.

Across the vast expanses of the online world, you can find positive, negative, neutral, nuanced, and occasionally baffling opinions about pretty much every American state. Beyond SmartAsset's study, it's also not hard to find similar publications with conflicting results. For instance, World Population Review's 2026 "Friendliest States" rankings left Montana in 36th place. Based on 2023 tourist commentary, this study openly notes the "anecdotal and unscientific" nature of comparing the relative friendliness of states. Given that, World Population Review recommends viewing its rankings "more as educated opinions rather than data-backed scientific or statistical conclusions." Similarly, SmartAsset's declaration of Montana as America's friendliest state may be best understood when contextualized by its basis of fact being how much time residents typically spent on friendly-seeming activities such as socializing, volunteering, and helping others.

Those numbers aren't all Montana has to back up its friendliness credentials, though. Accounts from people who have visited the state also help illustrate its charm. "Montanans are truly amazing people," one Reddit user from the Southern U.S. shared in a post. They added that after losing control of their car on a snowy Montana road, several locals quickly began to stop and offer help. "In a matter of 1:30 hours, two random strangers had dug my SUV out, and pulled me out and back on the road. No one wanted compensation other than a handshake. I can't tell you how thankful I am," they wrote.

After visiting some of Montana's must-visit scenic spots, another Reddit user shared: "Montana is the most beautiful state I've been to and with the nicest people too." Not all commenters on this post seemed to agree with the latter sentiment, though.

Often considered to be undeniably beautiful (and one of the absolute best states for hiking), Montana may not necessarily come off as "friendly" to everyone. In fact, it's actually not uncommon for tourists and transplants alike to report a distinct anti-outsider bias in the region. While some locals explain this phenomenon as a reaction to working-class Montana communities having costs driven up by new arrivals keen on exploiting the area's natural beauty, there are some other important facts travelers might want to know before visiting the state.

To start, Montana ranks as one of America's least diverse states. Only four states (New Hampshire, Vermont, West Virginia, and Maine) place below it, and this lack of diversity may understandably make some people of color wary of visiting. "You're definitely going to stand out and get stares," The Black Travel View blog shares, "but you'll also find plenty of kind people." In an Outside Magazine article, writer Emilé Zynobia Newman provides further insight on the atmosphere you might encounter in parts of the state, sharing that "in Dillon, Montana, a place I've passed through many times through the years, there is a motel called the Sun Downer." Though Tougaloo College's Sundown Towns Database (a collection of info on sundown towns, defined as communities that purposefully and violently discriminate against non-white people) doesn't currently list Dillon and there doesn't appear to be any evidence that the business' name is connected to racism, it's easy to see why a local institution called the Sundowner Motel would negatively impact a person's ability to view all of Montana as friendly.

Additionally, the state is hardly one of the world's most LGBTQ+ friendly destinations. Like many red states across America, Montana has a history of discriminatory legislation that can significantly impact just how welcoming the region feels to queer travelers.