The 10 Dumbest States In The United States For 2026

The 10 Dumbest States In The US For 2026

1. Mississippi

Population: 2,946,779
% Adult High School Dropout: 13.0%
% Highly Educated: 25.0%

America’s next dumbest state is Mississippi.

I couldn’t decide, is Mississippi more Patrick or Barney?

Just kidding, Mississippi. You guys are pretty dopey though. Mississippi has the highest number of high school dropouts in America at 11%.

Even the criminals are dumb in Mississippi (home alone)

What’s the deal anyways guys? Mississippi is actually a really pretty place, and the weather isn’t too bad most of the year. There’s a lot to do, and everyone’s really friendly. Maybe they just don’t like sitting in class all day and they’d rather hit the trails or go find a lake somewhere.

They like to hunt, go to church often, and make some really good food.

Maybe we should stop bullying Mississippi. If we’re going to pick on someone, let’s pick on California. They deserve it. (dumb blonde)

2. Louisiana

Population: 4,611,961
% Adult High School Dropout: 14.0%
% Highly Educated: 27.0%

And who’s our runner up for the stupidest state in America? Hello Louisian-uhhh.

1 in 9 people in Louisiana never finished high school, and 1 in 20 never even made it to high school. What about college? 23% of residents have a college degree in the Bayou State, which is the 5th lowest in our great nation.

Louisiana native Bobby Bouche sure was stupid, but at least he helped his team do something. What did the rest of the people in louisiana do that was productive to help win something?

Louisiana tries though. It’s home to the Frog Capital of the world and the duck capital of america. That’s cool.

Famous people from Louisiana include DJ Khaled, Richard Simmons and LIttle Wayne. Any Little Wayne fans out there? No?

3. West Virginia

Population: 1,778,373
% Adult High School Dropout: 12.0%
% Highly Educated: 24.0%

West Virginia is next up on our list. That’s probably not a surprise to anyone I bet.

There are less people who went to college in West Virginia than anywhere else in the whole country. Only 19% of west virginians earned a college degree.

These guys are probably way smarter than a lot of people in West Virginia (BB).

Of course, we have to be fair, here. West Virginia has given us a lot of things. Pepperoni Rolls, banjos and overalls to name a few.

Let’s look at some West virginia stereotypes. Everyone’s a hillbilly. Cousins get married. There’s no arts and culture. Everyone’s a redneck.

Are these accurate? Let us know in the comments below.

Stupid Girl. All ya had you wasted. All ya had you wasted.

4. Arkansas

Population: 3,049,391
% Adult High School Dropout: 12.0%
% Highly Educated: 25.0%

If you wanna see some real blockheads, head on down to the great state of Arkansas.

(blockhead charlie brown)

Considering the fact that only 22% of residents have a college degree and that 10% never finished high school, Arkansas residents could’t get too upset if we thought they were a little….dopey.

Arkansas is home to the mysterious Fouke Monster who has supposedly been seen crawling along the bogs and marshes down there. Sorta like a swamp thing Bigfoot guy. I’ll bet if the fouke monster took a spelling test, he’d get an F.

Arkies as they call themselves, have a tendency to call lunch, dinner and dinner, supper. That’s dumb. But i reckon yaal think thats purty fine though, dontcha?

5. Nevada

Population: 3,184,612
% Adult High School Dropout: 12.0%
% Highly Educated: 28.0%

Neva-duh!

Here in Nevada, 14% of people never finished high school, and barely more than 1 in 5 was smart enough to go to college. Maybe that’s because there’s only like 2 colleges in the entire state?

What else is nevada known for? Deserts (stupid), Death Valley (stupid!) and Las Vegas (not so stupid)

Actually, they can’t be that dumb in Nevada. After all, every day tons of stupid people come there and hand them all their money. Maybe we’re the dummies.

Maybe thaaaat’s why all the roads are all straight in Nevada. They cant figure out directions anywhere.

6. Alabama

Population: 5,086,768
% Adult High School Dropout: 12.0%
% Highly Educated: 28.0%

We go back to the south, where we’re pretty much going to stay for the rest of this dopey drive. We start our tour of dumb southern states with Alabama.

After all, Forest Gump was from alabama and he was really stupid.

In Alabama, school definitely isn’t cool. A whopping 1 in 20 people didn’t even 9th grade. Then they grew up and were dummies the rest of their lives.

People like this: Chrissy

There’s one thing people in Alabama really love. College football. You either cheer for Auburn or Alabama. And if you pick Auburn to beat Alabama, you’re even stupider than I thought.

Did you know Alabama is the third poorest state, too? Maybe there’s something to that.

Fried green tomatoes. Who eats that?

Actually, they can’t be that dumb in Alabama, they figured out a way to create an artificial ski resort in the middle of the south. (goofy skiing?) That takes some real brains.

Sure, Alabama is filled with hard working, honest Americans who care about their communities. That’s c o m m u n . forget it.

7. Kentucky

Population: 4,534,824
% Adult High School Dropout: 11.0%
% Highly Educated: 27.0%

Next, we take a quick pit stop in Kentucky.

Home to horse racing and bourbon makers, Kentucky is actually a pretty cool place to live. Maybe the folks here just want to live the simple life – and don’t care about getting ahead in life. Maybe we shouldn’t judge them?

Just kidding, let’s judge.

Kentucky gets the top 5 in three categories: number of high school graduates, number of people who never even went to high school, and number of people who went to college.

But we don’t think you really seem to care much about that, do you Kentucky? Kelly Bundy

Kentucky is actually home to two really good universities – Louisville and Kentucky. And only one US president was born in Kentucky – but he might have been our best president ever. That’s Abraham Lincoln you idiot.

8. New Mexico

Population: 2,120,246
% Adult High School Dropout: 12.0%
% Highly Educated: 31.0%

Right next door to the big ole state of Texas, it gets worse. New Mexico is even dumber. While they have a few less high school dropouts than Texas, they have far fewer people who went to college here. It’s like some New Mexicans finished high school and then quit. Quitters!

Actually, New Mexico is home to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is home to 11,000 of some of the smartest people in the country. It’s very top secret and they make nuclear weapons and stuff. So maybe we better not mess with em too much. How do these scientists deal with living next to so many dummies? (yuck) When you go to a restaurant in New Mexico, they ask you red or green? That’s it – two choices for chili. If they have New Mexicans any more options, they probably couldn’t handle it.

Other things that make New Mexico dumb – a bunch of their residents think they see UFOs all the time. We know aliens arent real. That’s silly.

9. Oklahoma

Population: 4,028,634
% Adult High School Dropout: 11.0%
% Highly Educated: 28.0%

10. Texas

Population: 30,188,424
% Adult High School Dropout: 15.0%
% Highly Educated: 33.0%

Our next stop on our idiotic quest through America takes us to Texas. Hee-Haw!

Texas actually tied with Tennessee in its dumb rankings, but we broke the tie because Texas has the second highest number of people without a high school diploma in the US. 17% of people in Texas never even finished high school.

The only state with more high school dropouts? California. (Kardashians) Yeah, they’re pretty dumb in California, too.

However, we have to point out that Texas is actually in the middle of the pack when it comes to college degree holders. That means there are a lot of really smart people in Texas (show it) and a lot of really dumb people in Texas (goofy).

But, people in Texas gave us barbecue, guns and the Cowboys, so that counts for something right?

Here’s a Texas snowman. That’s pretty clever, right?

These boots are pretty nifty.

And this is incredible! (big truck). Way to go Texas guy. You made a big truck.

How We Calculated The Dumbest States In The United States For 2026

To rank the dumbest States in the USA of A, we used data from the American Community Survey combined with Saturday Night Science.

We started by getting data from the 2020-2024 American Community Survey for every state. We then looked at our criteria:

• % of the state’s population with less than a high school education (Age 25+)
• % of state’s population without a college degree (Age 25+)

We ranked each state from 1 to 50, with 1 being the state with the dumbest. As it turns out, the dumbest states in America mostly voted for Trump.

Who woulda guessed?

We updated this report for 2026. This report is our eleventh time ranking the dumbest states in America

Summary: The Dumbest States For 2026

If you’re measuring the states in America where there are a low number of college grads and adults without a high school diploma, this is an accurate list.

The dumbest states in the United States are Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia, Arkansas, Nevada, Alabama, Kentucky, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

The smarest states in the United States are Vermont, Colorado, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Utah, Minnesota, Virginia, Montana, New Jersey, and Maryland.

For more reading, check out:

• Worst States In America
• Best Places To Live In America

Dumbest States In The US For 2026