How Fun Are South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa?

Someone once said, "Never underestimate the importance of fun!" And while most of us can think of something fun we'd like to do right now, it is true that some places are just more fun than others.

Anyway, that was the theory behind a new study from our number-crunching friends at Wallet Hub. They looked at all 50 states trying to find places where fun was an affordable way of life.

Affordable, being the keyword here. I mean for some people fun is hanging out in the Caribbean with a fan in one hand and a rum punch in the other. For others, it's mountain climbing. So again, think- -affordable fun!

They compared all 50 states in two basic categories: 1) Entertainment & Recreation and 2) Nightlife.

Within those basic categories, they examined all kinds of things like; the variety of arts, entertainment, and recreation establishments, the weather, and the number of restaurants, museums, theaters, fitness centers, and skiing facilities that there were in the area.

They also went looking for shoreline mileage, which believe it or not South Dakota, Iowa & (of course) Minnesota, have plenty of.

In the nightlife category, they specifically looked at prices of adult beverages, access to bars, casinos per capita, movie costs, music festivals, and more.

So how did our tri-state area show up in this study? Not too bad actually.

• Minnesota ranked 9th
• South Dakota came in 29th
• Iowa ranked 34th

This study didn't take into account things like quality of life, crime, school quality, or anything like that, pure fun was their pursuit for this study and that being said, our area showed up as a pretty fun place to live.

To find out more, just check out Wallet Hub's Most Fun States in America study.

Source: Wallet Hub