I've been on the radio for a lot of years and most of that time has been spent playing country music.

I grew up a kid in the 80s so bands like Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, and Guns and Roses were at the top of my playlist. Although I was a fan of Alabama, it wasn't until the huge country boom of the 90s that I switched over thanks to Garth Brooks, George Strait, and the other great artists that defined 90s country.

Country music is a big deal here in Montana. You can find country music playing on the radio, after a rodeo, at bars, local fairs, and in businesses all across the state.

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How "country" is Montana?

Here in Big Sky Country, we're known as "The Last Best Place". A big part of that is because of our way of life. For many Montanans, the "country" lifestyle has been passed down from generation to generation. It includes hunting, fishing, riding horses, farming, ranching, and working hard.

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Credit: Canva
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Kind of sounds like a country song, right? The folks over at Zippia decided to look at each state and rank them in order of being the most like a country song. So where did Montana end up?

According to their research,  Montana is a whole lot like a country song, and the state landed in the Top 10.

Montana ranked 6th out of 50 states. The only states more "country" than Montana are Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Missouri. I can see a couple of these being ranked higher, but Nevada and Oregon? Really?

How did they determine the results?

So this is where it gets interesting. To determine just how "country" a state was, they looked at the following research:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Percentage of homes owning a dog
  • Divorce rate
  • Population per square mile
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Credit: Canva
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We know that Montanans love drinking and dogs, so that put us in the conversation from the get-go. While our divorce rate is low compared to other states, our population per square mile is also low. Put it all together and it's good enough to make Montana one of the most "country" states in America.

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