Yesterday, we shared some Coffee Review readership data by country in a piece called “Where is Coffee Hot in 2015: By Country.” Perhaps not surprisingly, the United States is the country with the greatest Coffee Review readership and readership per capita. Today, we take a closer look at how readership and growth varies by U.S. state.
Obviously, a big driver of traffic is the population of each state. For example, you would expect California to have more readers than Hawaii just based on the large difference in population, roughly 38 million versus 1.4 million, respectively. So, we normalized for population to calculate per capita readership, which is a better gauge of how passionate a particular state is about coffee.
Two notes about methodology: 1) Because we launched a new website in 2014, which had a dramatic impact on page views, we’re ranking states on the basis of page views instead of traffic, as we did in 2014; 2) For year-over-year growth, we used 2-month snapshot from January and February 2015 versus 2014.
Ranking by Per Capita Readership
The ranking of states by per capita readership has not changed dramatically since our last look in early 2014. The top ten spots have shuffled quite a bit but nine of the ten states remain are the same as 2014.
Hawaii remains in the No. 1 spot. As we’ve noted in the past, that might seem surprising at first glance but, when you consider that Hawaii is the only state that produces significant quantities of coffee, it stands to reason that a lot of people have a vested interest in coffee news and reviews.
Minnesota made the biggest jump from 2014 to 2015, moving from the No. 10 spot to No. 2. This likely a function of a vibrant and growing coffee scene in greater Minneapolis, with numerous quality roasters such as Paradise Roasters (a Coffee Review advertiser), Spyhouse Coffee, Bootstrap Coffee, Bull Run, True Stone, and Caribou Coffee. It may also be a function of traffic directed to the site by roasters and local press that reported on the Top 30 Coffees of 2014 and other great reviews in January and February.
This is certainly the case for California moving up a spot to No. 5. Thirteen of the Top 30 Coffees of 2014 were roasted in California and local media, particularly in Sacramento, provided a lot of well deserved coverage.
Illinois jumped into the top ten at No. 9. New Hampshire, which had been No. 7, dropped out of the top ten.
It’s interesting to note that Vermont (No. 4 to No. 8), New Hampshire (No. 7 to No. 15), and Maine (No. 24 to No. 39) showed some of the largest year-over-year drops. I wonder if the incredibly harsh winter played a role in reducing readership?
Ranking by Per Capita Page Views (2014 rank in parentheses):
1. Hawaii (1)
2. Minnesota (10)
3. Massachusetts (3)
4. Washington (2)
5. California (6)
6. Colorado (8)
7. Oregon (5)
8. Vermont (4)
9. Illinois (12)
10. New York (9)
11. New Jersey (16)
12. Virginia (11)
13. Maryland (15)
14. Connecticut (14)
15. New Hampshire (7)
16. Pennsylvania (23)
17. Nebraska (19)
18. Florida (27)
19. Alaska (26)
20. Georgia (32)
21. Rhode Island (18)
22. Missouri (29)
23. Kansas (17)
24. Arizona (28)
25. Oklahoma (30)
26. Texas (34)
27. Michigan 31)
28. Tennessee (27)
29. North Carolina (35)
30. Kentucky (36)
31. Wisconsin (20)
32. Nevada (22)
33. Delaware (31)
34. Montana (13)
35. Ohio (33)
36. South Dakota (45)
37. Wyoming (38)
38. North Dakota (43)
39. Maine (24)
40. Indiana (35)
41. New Mexico (39)
42. Utah (44)
43. Louisiana (46)
44. Iowa (41)
45. South Carolina (50)
46. Alabama (42)
47. West Virginia (48)
48. Idaho (40)
49. Arkansas (47)
50. Mississippi (49)
Ranking by Percentage Growth
We also looked at percentage growth from early 2014 to 2015. On average, page views increased 42% from 2014 to 2015. It stands to reason that states that had greater than 42% growth rose in the per capita rankings and those with less than 42% growth fell. The fastest growing state in terms of Coffee Review readership was South Dakota, with a growth rate of 91%. Yes, it was off a small base, as was the case for several of the fastest growing states.
Ranking by Percentage Growth from 2014 to 2015:
1. South Dakota
2. Minnesota
3. North Dakota
4. Hawaii
5. Louisiana
6. Tennessee
7. Kentucky
8. Florida
9. Georgia
10. New Jersey
11. Pennsylvania
12. West Virginia
13. Texas
14. California
15. Missouri
16. Utah
17. Wyoming
18. Alaska
19. Maryland
20. Massachusetts
21. Nebraska
22. Colorado
23. South Carolina
24. Illinois
25. Arkansas
26. New York
27. Ohio
28. Oklahoma
29. Arizona
30. Rhode Island
31. Vermont
32. Iowa
33. New Mexico
34. Alabama
35. Indiana
36. Delaware
37. Michigan
38. Connecticut
39. Mississippi
40. North Carolina
41. Oregon
42. Wisconsin
43. Virginia
44. Nevada
45. Maine
46. Washington
47. Kansas
48. Idaho
49. New Hampshire
50. Montana
