We're well into our reporting on the "State of the States" based on Gallup Daily tracking data collected throughout 2010. In case you're just catching up, here's a quick look at the headlines and top 10 lists so far:
Number of Solidly Democratic States Cut in Half From '08 to '10: There were 14 solidly Democratic states in 2010, down from 30 in 2008. In addition to the District of Columbia, the most solidly Democratic states are Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Hawaii. The most solidly Republican states are Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho.
D.C., Hawaii Still Most Approving of Obama; All States Decline: Approval of President Barack Obama in 2010 ranged from a high of 84% in the District of Columbia to 28% in Wyoming. Approval fell in 2010 compared with 2009 in all 50 states and D.C.
Mississippi Rates as the Most Conservative U.S. State: Mississippi is not only the most conservative state in the U.S. but also the first state in three years of Gallup Daily tracking to have more than 50% of residents identify as conservative. D.C., Vermont, and Rhode Island have the most self-identified liberals.
North Dakota and Washington, D.C., Best Job Markets in 2010: Job markets improved the most in 2010 in Michigan, D.C., and North Dakota, while getting worse in New Mexico. Overall, the best job markets were in North Dakota, D.C., and South Dakota while the worst job markets were in Nevada, New Jersey and California.
There are many more top 10 lists to come. We'll report economic confidence by state on Wednesday and underemployment by state on Friday. Next week, we'll report our key well-being metrics by state.
You can find the complete data for all of these metrics in our updated "State of the States" interactive. The feature allows you to map, sort, and export data across measures and also to save your own map or chart.
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