As the calendar flips to February, love is in the air. Super Bowl betting is around the corner and we are approaching Valentine’s Day. We’re not focused on Jordan Love, Josh Hart, Derrick Rose, Denzel Valentine, Fred Couples, or Zay Flowers—all with excellent romantic-themed last names—but instead on the most romantic spots in the United States.

Last year we used Google Trends to see which states were searching “Valentine’s Day” the most in the 30 days leading up to Feb. 14. This year, we’ve taken it a step further (you could say our relationship with this piece is getting pretty serious). 

We’ve also added marriage rates and Valentine’s Day consumer spending to the rankings. Then we've taken the three categories and averaged them out to see which states are feeling the love and which states are going to be waiting patiently until National Singles Day on September 21.

Here's what we found.

Methodology 

Bookies.com utilized Google trends data, Marriage rate statistics, and Valentine’s Day consumer spending data to get our rankings. Each category was given a ranking of 50 to 1, with 50 being the highest and 1 being the lowest. In the event of a tie, the state with the higher marriage rate was given the higher ranking.

Google Trends Data was collected for the term “Valentine’s Day” 30 days leading up to the holiday. The data from 2017-2023 was then averaged from each state and ranked.

Marriage rate statistics were collected from Worldpopulationreview.com. Valentine’s Day consumer spending data was collected from Vox and was adjusted to match Valentine’s Day consumer spending habits in 2024.

Love Is In The Air In North Dakota

We may not associate national parks and buffalo with love, but the residents of North Dakota sure do. Top on our list of the states most invested in Valentine’s Day was none other than the Peace Garden State. 

Maybe that nickname tracks with the state spending fourth most and having the fifth highest marriage rate in the country—with plenty of flowers to pick for that special someone, it's starting to make sense.

We’re sure residents are feeling the love in local towns like South Heart. They can pick up some jewelry in Gladstone or Crystal, Cupid’s arrow may strike them in Oxbow, the passion flame shows up in Lignite, and they steal a quick kiss in Pekin. Maybe their eyes even wander in Butte.

North Dakota residents ranked in the top 12 in searches for Valentine’s Day, rounding out the most romantic state on our list. In fact, the difference in their final point total compared to No. 2 Kansas was the same as Kansas to No. 8 Nebraska.

Arizona Isn’t Living Up To Its Nickname

Known primarily as the Grand Canyon State—one of the most beautiful spectacles on Earth—Arizona is also known as the Sweetheart State, but our research showed quite the opposite. Arizona ranked 43^rd on our list, anchored only by its average spend on Valentine’s Day which ranked in the top half among all U.S. states. 

We don’t want to put too much pressure on any individuals in the state to get things going, but the residents of Paradise Valley and Queen Creek may have a head start on turning it around.

Vermont And Oregon, Let’s Have A Talk

Maybe Oregonians and Vermont residents are busy doing their own thing or just showing their affection in different ways, but they were last in our rankings by a wide margin. The two states almost couldn’t be farther from each other geographically and yet they have one thing in common: They both simply don’t care all that much about Valentine’s Day.

No state searches “Valentine’s Day” less than Oregon, and both ranked in the bottom 10 among average spending on the big day. Maybe the folks of Happy Valley or Unity in Oregon or Waterford in Vermont can get these states back trending in the right direction. 

Hey, online sports betting just went live in Vermont, so maybe couples can bond over gifting each other some of the top sportsbook promo codes in the state and find some common ground on their favorite wagers.

Utah Will Be Staying Busy This Valentine’s Day

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that we find Utah in the top-5 of these rankings. The largely Mormon population helped them rank first in the United States in marriage rate, but those polygamous relationships are taking care of one another, with the state also ranking 13^th in overall spending on Valentine’s Day. 

Though their search ranking was in the bottom third of all states, we’re guessing folks in Utah aren’t forgetting about Valentine’s Day or needing any reminders.

North Carolina Staying Consistent Across The Board

Sometimes it’s OK to not rank at the top of the class, so long as you aren’t a bottom feeder. There’s nothing wrong with being average—or consistent, in nicer terms—and that’s what we found in North Carolina. The Tar Heel State was middle of the pack in all three rankings, and we’re guessing Chapel Hill did a lot of that heavy lifting. 

With the launch of online sports betting in North Carolina coming just a month after Valentine’s Day, it could be a perfect gift opportunity for those who mess up or don’t meet the gifting requirements set by their significant other in February.

West Virginia, It’s Time To Make The Leap

It’s one thing to search Valentine’s Day, and it’s another to actually act on it. And that’s where West Virginia finds itself. For each of the last six years, it has ranked atop our list of the most searches for Valentine’s Day. As we dug deeper, our data revealed that the state spends the eighth fewest dollars on the day. 

We know that the residents are thinking about it, but it’s time to put their money where their keyboards are and start showing love. We’ll put the onus on romantic-themed city names in Star City, Richwood, Mount Hope, Hartford City, and Keystone to get the job done.

Kansas Opens Up The Wallets On V-Day

Flower shops, candy shops, and retail stores that sell stuffed animals certainly stay busy on Valentine’s Day in Kansas. No other state spends as much money around Feb. 14 than the aptly nicknamed Sunflower State. Give yourself a pat on the back, Kansas residents. You’re gifting like no other state in the country.

For this project, we utilized Google Trends data going back over the previous 6 years (2017 through 2022). For each year, we broke down the raw search data for each state for the term: Valentine's Day. We only looked at data in the 30 days prior to Valentine's Day each year.

All states were assigned a numerical value from 1-100 depending on their search traffic data for each year (with the most searches getting a higher number and the least searches a lower number).

That data was then averaged over the six-year dataset and ranked from highest (most romantic) to lowest (least romantic).

Last year we used Google Trends to see which states were searching “Valentine’s Day” the most in the 30 days leading up to Feb. 14. This year, we’ve taken it a step further (you could say our relationship with this piece is getting pretty serious). 

We’ve also added marriage rates and Valentine’s Day consumer spending to the rankings, then taking the three categories and averaging them out to see which states are feeling the love and which states are going to be waiting patiently until National Singles Day on September 21.