The 10 Most Confident States In America: Gallup

Americans across the country might have felt worse about the economy last year, but pockets of hope remain.

Nine states and the District of Columbia top Gallup's most recent list of the states with the most economic confidence, but the overall situation isn't pretty. Economic confidence dropped in all 50 states and the District of Columbia last year, according to the ongoing telephone survey conducted by Gallup. Furthermore, a full two-thirds of those surveyed said the economy is getting worse.

Yet in certain areas of our country, there is a sense of optimism. Take North Dakota, a state presently reaping the benefits of an oil boom that has pushed the unemployment rate close to 3 percent (the national unemployment rate is more than double that).

Overall, unfortunately, confidence has been on the decline during a less than inspiring recovery, something made clear when consumer confidence dropped again last month. Could things soon change? With the economy adding 243,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropping to 8.3 percent, the lowest in nearly three years, it could be possible. Standing in the way are lingering concerns that the housing market and income growth may be holding the economy back: Housing prices have fallen for three straight months according to the most recent data, and the percentage of Americans expecting to see income growth dropped last month too.

Here are the 10 most economically confident states, according to Gallup:

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Comments

[Pumpsie]

12:56 AM on 02/10/2012

DC is number 1 because the federal government is out of control. North Dakota is #2 because they have the ONLY state-owned banking system in the nation and their people have, therefore, been protected against all the theft by the large banking institutions. North Dakota is, interestingly enough, when it comes to banking, the most socialist state in the union and have protected their own economy when the rest of us were being pillaged. Every state should follow suit.

[Jose Hill]

03:19 PM on 02/07/2012

Of course DC is number 1. It's gaurenteed employment with the government.

[Mahi vce]

11:12 AM on 02/07/2012

Ofcourse DC is confidant .... As long as they can loot tax payers money ...

[stargazer13]

11:02 AM on 02/07/2012

I did not know D.C was a state

I thought it was a district ?

[grkow]

03:53 AM on 02/07/2012

Only 6 states are not projecting a deficit for 2012. Utah was ranked #10 in this article and have a 390 million projected deficit.

The infrastructure of this crumbling empire rates a C to D depending on the source, and the middle class manufacturing base is a bygone of another era.

The forecast is severe financial distress with a high probability of sawdust meatballs for the working poor.

[Elk Hunter 1]

10:39 PM on 02/07/2012

Where do you read that Utah has a projected deficit of 390 million?

Everything I read on it, at least what the govs office says is Utah will have a 215 million surplus in 2012.

Just wondering where you got that info.

[grkow]

12:50 AM on 02/08/2012

State Budget Gaps: How Does Your State Rank?

Title of the march 2011 article.

Unsure if posting a link is forbidden or might delay post.

[ConservativeChampion]

11:38 PM on 02/06/2012

Number 1 is ...... WASHINGTON DC....

Wow.... I wonder why they are so confident. Could it be that they are taking all of the money from the private sector and giving it to themselves? YEP....

[rotorhead1871]

10:32 PM on 02/06/2012

LMAO......what a ridiculous article...

[wtf is this]

10:29 PM on 02/06/2012

DC looks out of touch...

[ResearchtheFacts]

07:50 PM on 02/06/2012

Surprised my state didn't make the list since we have had a little over 6% unemployment for the past 2- 3 years.

[MovieGuy2010]

07:11 PM on 02/06/2012

Lets see, states with Federal Subsidized industries like Oil and Agriculture (The Dakotas Nebraska,Iowa). States with a large older retired population ALREADY on SS and Medicare (Minnesota and the Dakotas).

Maryland and DC, cities doing well because of the bloated size of the government, lobbists and military contractors (the pentagon).

There are now a MILLION PEOPLE that work in the Spy Agency part of the Military Industrial Intelligence Congressional Complex. Job security for those people seems permanent, Dem or Republican (OK, Ron Paul, but he has zippo chance of being president...)

Hawaii, they just smoke so much dope and the sun always shines, why be pessimistic?

[atlasusa]

07:51 PM on 02/06/2012

your post wreaks of prejudice, misinformation filled with arrogance ........ and misspelled words.
(p.s. where is VA with the Pentagon and all the military contractors then?)

[MovieGuy2010]

08:25 PM on 02/06/2012

I think you meant reeks, correct? Wreak is a verb; as in to wreak havoc?

I may suck at spelling, but my vocabulary is pretty good.

So, perhaps making yourself the spelling police ain't such a good idea?
(ain't I cute tweaking your little blue nose with my ain'ts!)

Oh, and btw, who gives flying F what you say?

Where is the misinformation?

Are you telling me Marylands primary industries are NOT farming and government work? Unless you think Crabbing is a big growth industry.

Where do you think THIS PLACE IS LOCATED:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency.

Estimates are, Bush DOUBLED the size of the work force there.

Come on, point out that Nebraska and Iowa don't get massive farm subsidies and that the Dakotas and Minnesota don't have an older population then lets say Washington or Oregon?

[Elk Hunter 1]

10:43 PM on 02/07/2012

You really think that things are only good in the Dakota's because of subsidies? The product they are taking our of the ground there has quite a bit to do with thier happy feelings and low unemployement rate.

If it really was just about the subsodies then all of those people who work in the Solar Industry would be positive also. OR pretty much any green energy feild.

[MovieGuy2010]

11:39 AM on 02/08/2012

The oil industry is a bloated Goverment-Socialism Dinosaur. There maybe a gold rush in the Dakotas right now, but like other Gold Rushes, they are somewhat sort lived and never seem to expand beyond a certain point.

Plus with the miniscule population in those states, pretty easy for a small gold rush to have a BIG impact?

Also, the Dakotas DO have some of the oldest population in the US; My GFs aunts and uncles all live there, all quite old, all quite content.

SS and Medicare, being rock solid in spite of the constant attempt by the right to feed them to WallStreet, ARE the one thing that isolated the older folks from the impact of the down-turn.

Well, how DO you know that that the people in the Solar Energy field ARE NOT positive.

Again, you poll a small population state like ND, chances are you hit SOMEONE afffected by the gold rush?

How do you determine the affect of the green energy industry on this poll? You can't because it is in so many states?

I sell to many of them, First Solar being the biggest and they are doing quite well, even IF they are fighting a war against the Chinese who are subsidising their companies while the US is doing simple hand-waving at the problem,

[paulmary]

07:07 PM on 02/06/2012

Interesting, mostly republican states.

[dporterdvd]

06:48 PM on 02/06/2012

In California, we have confidence in the weather and the film industry.

The overall economy - not so much.

[sillygames]

05:48 PM on 02/06/2012

The unregulated fracking going on is going to be terrible when it is discovered the ground water is polluted.

[tacevad]

04:33 PM on 02/06/2012

states? and you end with Washington DC? ummmmm it is not a state, heck citizens there don't even get a vote in Congress!

[Views from the Middle]

03:09 PM on 02/06/2012

The population of most of these States is almost nil.

[UtahScott]

11:08 PM on 02/06/2012

and let's keep it that way.......