South Dakota is the Best Smelling State in the Country? Sort Of

Growing up in a state where my uncles had livestock and visiting their farms was an assault on my olfactories, I never would have thought our state would have made this list.

Zippia.com did a ranking of all fifty states from smelliest to least smelly. The rankings were based half on more measurable metrics and half on human factors. The amount of dirty air, amount of land devoted to landfills. Then they looked at population density, which means more people, more stink, obviously. But then, oddly, bad breath, actually based on statewide dental hygiene. I guess that adds to smelliness, but you have to be kind of close.

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Based on that the ten smelliest states in the country are:

1. Maryland
2. California
3. Florida
4. Delaware
5. Massachusetts
6. Alabama
7. New Jersey
8. New York
9. Pennsylvania
10. Mississippi

The least smelly state in the country is actually a pair of states that share the title of least smelly. North Dakota and South Dakota tied for the states that fared the best in all four categories.

Here is the ranking of the best, freshest smelling states in the nation:

1t - South Dakota
1t - North Dakota
3 - Wyoming
4 - Idaho
5 - Wisconsin
6 - Utah
7 - Oregon
8t - Washington
8t - Vermont
10 - Kansas

Of the states right around us in the Sioux Falls area, Nebraska just missed the top ten at #11. Iowa, despite any leftover reputation the state has along I-29, came in at #12. Minnesota, most likely due to the high population density of the Twin Cities, did the worst of our neighbors coming in at a still pleasantly aromatic #14.