The Midwest has a reputation for being a little more polite than other areas of the country. But is it really true? Someone polled 2,000 Midwesterners to find out.
They didn’t poll people in other areas of the country, so there’s no way to do an apples-to-apples comparison. But here are some good-mannered things, and how many Midwesterners do them.
1. Apologize when you’ve done nothing wrong. 74% of Midwesterners say they do it regularly.
2. Wave to people you don’t know, 64%.
3. Hold doors for strangers. 55% claim they do it.
4. Bring a shared dish to a party, 73%.
5. Smile at strangers, 80%.
6. Tip well, 59%.
7. Help a neighbor out with a chore, 45%.
8. Give a stranger directions, 80%.
9. Obey the speed limit. Only 40% said they usually do, and just 37% yield to other cars in traffic. So, even Midwesterners aren’t that polite behind the wheel.
The team behind the survey crunched all those numbers and a few more, and scored each city on how polite it is.
According to the results, the nicest city in the Midwest is . . . St. Paul, Minnesota. And the nicest state is also Minnesota, with two cities in the top five.
The top five cities are St. Paul . . . Overland Park, Kansas . . . Naperville, Illinois . . . Minneapolis, Minnesota . . . and Des Moines, Iowa.
Meanwhile, the two RUDEST cities in the Midwest are both in Indiana: Evansville and Fort Wayne. Then it’s Rockford, Illinois . . . Columbus, Ohio . . . and Detroit, Michigan.
