It is summer, and millions of people have brought out their grills for outdoor cooking. Among the most popular foods Americans eat in the summers are hot dogs and hamburgers. The rate at which people consume these varies significantly from state to state. Those with the highest levels tend to be in states with longer periods of warm weather.
One of those stands out as the place where people spend the most on hot dogs and hamburgers per person.
In recent research that used data from Google Trends, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) showed how many hot dogs and hamburgers are consumed per capita in every state. The count was based on what people eat both at home and in restaurants. The data then was used to calculate what state residents spend on the two foods combined each year. Hawaii was the top state, with annual expenditures of $379 per capita.
Following Hawaii at the top of the list were Kentucky at $361, Arkansas at $360, Tennessee at $354 and Oklahoma at $350. All are in the lower tier of states economically, and all have high temperatures throughout the year. At the low end, Vermont residents spent $134 per capita per year. New Hampshire residents spent $135, New Jersey residents spent $176, Massachusetts residents spent $177 and Maine residents spent $188. Four of these are clustered in the states comprising the upper Northeast.
While there is no solid proof that state location determines hot dog and hamburger consumption, where these states are is at least an odd coincidence, particularly based on this analysis of hot dog and hamburger consumption by state.