Normally conversations around new year’s resolutions tend to go the same way, and are met with the same apprehension and half-heartedness as they always are. However, 2020 was not a normal year and a lot of people will have lived through a very different 12 months than they planned to back in January. Grand plans to travel the world, get in shape, start a business and more were all thrown out of the window as we were forced to adapt to a new way of living. It also gave us time to reflect, and as it turns out people are more determined than ever to make a New Year’s resolution when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st.
Which is why as part of our research into consumer trends for 2021, we wanted to find out what these resolutions were likely to be across the country, we surveyed over 5,000 people, with at least 100 people from each state and here’s what we found out:
- Less social media – 64%
Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, DC, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah - More exercise – 60%
Kansas, Maine, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia, Virginia - Drink less alcohol – 55%
Idaho, Iowa, New York, North Dakota, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Vermont - Stop picking nose in public – 43%
Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska - Clean more – 41%
California, New Mexico, North Carolina, Wisconsin - Be more kind – 40%
Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Wyoming - Travel more – 39%
Alaska, Missouri, Nevada, South Dakota - Wash more – 33%
Mississippi, New Jersey, Texas - Less sex – 24%
Kentucky - More sex – 21%
Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee
Further insights from our survey revealed:
- Pennsylvanians are the least optimistic, with only a third of people (32%) confident that they will stick to their resolutions and 71% admitting that they have too many bad habits in the Keystone State.
- New Yorkers had the highest percentage of people who want to drink less (81%), exercise more (83%) and also a uniquely high number for the number of people who want to stop picking their nose in public next year (73%).
- New Jersey residents were revealed as the most optimistic, with 98% confident that they can stick to their resolutions.
- Californians want to improve their cleaning habits the most (52%), and also saw the most votes for changing their bedding more often (31%).
- Vermont residents thought the most of themselves with the highest percentage of people who believe they don’t have any bad habits (51%).
- One in 20 Americans (6%) are also pledging to be more faithful to their partners in the new year.
We also decided to take a deep dive into Google search data and find out what people from each state had been searching in the build-up to the New Year and there were some quite surprising results:
- Pennsylvanians have been searching for how to break bad habits the most, including being the state most likely to search “how to stop cheating”, followed closely by New Yorkers.
- South Dakota was found to be the state that was searching “quit smoking” the most, while conversely North Dakota was the state searching “quit drinking” the most.
- Tennessee sees the most searches for “addicted to sex”, while its northerly neighbor Kentucky has been searching for “how to have more sex” the most.
- West Virginia has been searching “how to lose weight” the most and Washington state residents have been searching for “start running” the most.
- Californians have been searching for how often to change bedding the most
- In terms of quitting social media;
- Colorado residents are planning to quit facebook the most.
- Illinois residents want to quit Twitter the most.
- New York residents are planning to quit Instagram the most.
