The Numbers Are In... Illinois is More Gross Than Iowa

The other day we discovered that Iowa is one of the cleanest states in America. Ranking in the number 10 spot. Zippia recently did a study looking for the least clean states. Today we are looking at the Illinois side of the Quad Cities... It sadly isn't looking too good.

The Cleanest States

In the rankings, Iowa ranked number 40 out of 50 when it came to grossest states, which is a good thing seeing as though the number one spot went to the dirtiest and grossest state, while the number 50 spot went to the nicest.

The Least Gross States:
40. Iowa
41. Arizona
42. Michigan
43. Utah
44. Wyoming
45. Nevada
46. Maine
47. Idaho
47. Nebraska
49. Montana
50. Alaska

Illinois Ranking

Illinois found itself in the number 23 spot which isn't too bad but does put it in the top half of the "dirtiest" States. In Illinois's defense, it does have a big city.

To get these results Zippia looked at 3 things.

Dirty air
Trash, or the percentage of each state that is landfill
Spread of illnesses like the flu

To measure the dirtiness of the air, we referred Air Filters Delivered thorough ranking on air quality. For the trash rating, we simply used the EPA’s data on the percentage of each state’s land that is taken up by landfills. We then looked at the CDC’s ranking on spread of illness in each state like the flu. Because sneezing, coughing, and spreading diseases is pretty gross.

So while it is by no means the dirtiest state in America it sadly does find itself a bit high on the list.