UPDATE:
Commenters on this story have pointed out that Elmhurst is home to DSL and cable internet switching facilities. As a result, internet traffic from surrounding suburbs may also be tagged with an Elmhurst IP address, skewing the data to show more traffic emanating from Elmhurst. The TopTenReviews report makes no mention of whether or not its methodology accounts for such distortions.
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Elmhurst, Illinois is a small suburban town west of Chicago. It's a mostly white community of 45,000, where the average family makes six figures, and it's home to Elmhurst College, a small liberal-arts school with 2,400 undergrads.
According to a new report by TopTenReviews (via Chicagoist), it's also the internet porn-seeking capital of the United States.
For each of the three search terms "porn," "xxx" and "sex," Elmhurst led the nation in searches. Meriden, Connecticut, north of New Haven, was close behind; it came in second for "sex" and "xxx" and third for "porn."
The obvious question that the study doesn't address: why Elmhurst?
A spokesman for the city manager's office was baffled by the finding. "Are you sure it's Elmhurst, Illinois and not Elmhurst, New York?" he asked, presumably referring to the neighborhood in Queens. When asked why his city might rank so high for adult searches, the spokesman, who did not identify himself, simply repeated, "I have no idea."
And while the Elmhurst Police didn't have a comment, there is only one registered sex offender in Elmhurst with a pornography charge to his name. So the city doesn't appear to be a hotbed for trafficking in illicit porn.
Maybe it's just something in the water.
Other cities that repeatedly made the top 10 lists for pornography searches included Chandler, AZ; Kansas City, KS; Oklahoma City, OK; and others. See the full lists here.
The TopTenReviews report had some other surprising revelations. For instance: more than $3,000 per second go to porn consumption. Wow.
Online MBA compiled a visual representation of some of the more striking facts from the report. Have a look:
Via: Online MBA