What do Iowa, Montana, and West Virginia have in common? White people, and lots of them. According to Census data, these states are among the top 10 "whitest," ABC News reports. New England comes in first with three states in which at least 96% of the population is white. A black man living in Vermont likens a non-white moving to the state to Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier. "They are evaluated differently," he says. Northern New England, one theory goes, lacked the industries that drew African Americans from the South to other northern states in the '30s and '40s.
The rest of the states on the list each have a white population of more than 90%. As for states with the smallest percentage of whites, Hawaii, Mississippi, Louisiana, Maryland, and Georgia comprise the top five. Here are the 10 states with the highest percentage of whites:
- Maine
- Vermont
- New Hampshire
- West Virginia
- Iowa
- Wyoming
- Idaho
- Montana
- Kentucky
- North Dakota
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