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The United States of Breakups: When Are You Most Likely To Be Dumped In Your State?

Let’s face it. Whether they happen in January or June… breakups SUCK.

But… it’s safe to say that there are times of the year when an unexpected ditching can sting just that little bit harder.

Dumped on February 13th? It’s ice cream and Adele on repeat until July!

Back in 2014, a study of Facebook status updates found that March and December were the most common months for relationships to end.

But here at Her Norm, we wanted to find out if that varied across the USA.

Were New Yorkers more likely to be scroogers—who break up just in time to save money on Christmas presents⁠—than Californians?

Were Texans inclined to dump their partner in the run up to Valentine’s day?

We analysed data from Google to find out...

How We Figured This Out…

Like we do for most things in our lives these days… we used Google. Well, a specific tool that they provide to be exact.

Google Trends shows the relative popularity of a search term over time (on a scale of 1-100). So we simply looked at when searches for “how to break up” (which gets THOUSANDS of searches each month) peaked in each state.

In the example below (New York), searches peaked between the 10th and 16th of February…

Relative search volume of Google searches for "how to break up" in New York

…so it looks like there were a lot of broken hearts in Manhattan on Valentine’s day 🙁

Once we had the statistics, we split the states into 7 groups…

The ‘Cleanslaters’ (January)

States: Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Ohio, West Virginia

New Year is a time for fresh starts. And it seems this applies to relationships too. January was a popular month for breakups, with searches peaking in 7 states.

The ‘Heartbreakers’ (1st - 14th February)

Michigan and New York liked to do their dumping in the run up to Valentine's day.

States: Michigan and New York

Surely no-one would be cruel enough to break up with their guy or gal just before Valentine’s day? Well, as we already mentioned, it seems like plenty of New Yorkers did just that! And they weren’t alone. Searches also peaked in Michigan just before the most romantic day of the year.

The ‘String Alongers’ (15th - 28th February)

States: California, DC, Kansas, Nevada, North Carolina, Texas

We call this group the string alongers. They didn’t have the bottle to break up before Valentine’s day—instead, they strung their partner along, waiting for the last 2 weeks in February to give them the chop. Is this better or worse? We can’t decide!

The ‘Spring Cleaners’ (March, April, May)

States: Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington

The spring cleaners like to take a broom to their relationship in time for the Summer. There were 12 states that prefer to do their breaking up in the Spring.

The ‘Summer Lovers’ (June, July, August)

States: Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Summer lovin’… it didn’t last.

8 states saw searches peak over the summer months. We guess that ‘summer fling, don't mean a thing’ (ok, no more Grease puns).

The ‘Fallin' For Anothers’ (September, October, November)

States: Delaware, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont

We did think about calling this group the ‘Strategic Scrooges’. They know Christmas is just around the corner, and want to get their dumping in early. But we thought we’d give them the benefit of the doubt…

Maybe they had just fallen for another (get it?).

The ‘Scroogers’ (25th November - 25th December)

The 'Scroogers' do their dumping just before Christmas!

States: Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah

And finally… we’ve got the scroogers. These 6 states preferred to do their ditching just before Christmas. We hope Santa put them straight on the naughty list and rewarded them with a lump of coal!

The Full List...

Here's a full rundown of all the states in alphabetical order.

StateWeekCategory
Alabama28th Jul - 3rd AugSummer Lovers
Alaska27th Jan - 3rd FebCleanslaters
Arizona30th Dec - 5th JanCleanslaters
Arkansas23rd Dec - 29th DecScroogers
California24th Feb - 2nd MarString Alongers
Colorado19th May - 25th MaySpring Cleaners
Connecticut9th Dec - 15th DecScroogers
Delaware28th Oct - 3rd NovFallin' For Anothers
D.C.24th Feb - 2nd MarchString Alongers
Florida9th Dec - 15th DecScroogers
Georgia18th Aug - 24th AugSummer Lovers
Hawaii27th Jan - 2nd FebCleanslaters
Idaho12th May - 18th MaySpring Cleaners
Illinois3rd Mar - 9th MarSpring Cleaners
Indiana26th May - 1st JunSpring Cleaners
Iowa30th Jun - 6th JulSummer Lovers
Kansas17th Feb - 23rd FebString Alongers
Kentucky27th Jan - 2nd FebCleanslaters
Louisiana12th May - 18th MaySpring Cleaners
Maine22nd Sep - 28th SepFallin' For Anothers
Maryland16th Jun - 22nd JunSummer Lovers
Massachusetts20th Jan - 26th JanCleanslaters
Michigan3rd Feb - 9th FebHeartbreakers
Minnesota24th Mar - 30th MarSpring Cleaners
Mississippi28th Oct - 3rd NovFallin' For Anothers
Missouri28th Oct - 3rd NovFallin' For Anothers
Montana14th Oct - 20th OctFallin' For Anothers
Nebraska9th Dec - 15th DecScroogers
Nevada24th Feb - 2nd MarString Alongers
New Hampshire21st Apr - 27th AprSpring Cleaners
New Jersey18th Aug - 24th AugSummer Lovers
New Mexico28th Oct - 3rd NovFallin' For Anothers
New York3rd Feb - 9th FebHeartbreakers
North Carolina17th Feb - 23rd FebString Alongers
North Dakota14th Apr - 20th AprSpring Cleaners
Ohio30th Dec - 5th JanCleanslaters
Oklahoma17th Mar - 23rd MarSpring Cleaners
Oregon2nd Dec - 8th DecScroogers
Pennsylvania7th Apr - 13th AprSpring Cleaners
Rhode Island11th Nov - 17th NovFallin' For Anothers
South Carolina17th Mar - 23rd MarSpring Cleaners
South Dakota30th Jun - 6th JulSummer Lovers
Tennessee28th Oct - 3rd NovFallin' For Anothers
Texas17th Feb - 23rd FebString Alongers
Utah25th Nov - 1st DecScroogers
Vermont18th Nov - 24th NovFallin' For Anothers
Virgina4th Nov - 10th NovFallin' For Anothers
Washington10th Mar - 16th MarSpring Cleaners
West Virginia13th Jan - 19th JanCleanslaters
Wisconsin21st Jul - 27th JulSummer Lovers
Wyoming16th Jun - 22nd JunSummer Lovers

Which group did your state belong to? Drop a comment below and let us know!

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