These states are apparently the best at social distancing
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
If executive orders don't work, how about a little friendly competition between states to see who's the best at social distancing?
Unacast, a technology company, analyzed GPS location data from millions of smartphones across the country to track average distances before and after the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States and subsequently doled out grades to each state and county based on how big the decline has been, The Star Tribune reports.
The good news is that while some states are doing better than others, the majority appear to be doing their part. Several states received an A grade after showing greater than 40 percent declines in average distance traveled by and very few achieved lower than a B. The states that have stood out, in addition to Washington, D.C., which leads the pack with a 60 percent decrease, are Alaska, Nevada, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. New York, the state dealing with the worst of the crisis right now, also received an A.
Article continues belowThe Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Not every state earned strong marks, though. Wyoming was hit with a failing grade, while Montana and Idaho received Ds. Of course, those states are more sparsely populated so traveling greater distances is required more often. Read more at The Star Tribune and see more of Unacast's data here.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
