Tennessee Ranks #10 "Most Popular States"

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Aug. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Maybe it is the sandy beaches orperhaps the warm weather, but California, Florida and Hawaii are respectivelythe #1, #2, and #3 states that U.S. adults would choose to live in if theycould live in any state in the country. And when it comes to Americans'choices for cities, while the West may again be over-represented, the 'BigApple', New York City, comes in #1 for the sixth consecutive time as the U.S.city people would choose to live in or near.

TOP US STATES
These are some of the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 2,339 U.S.adults conducted online by Harris Interactive(R) between July 12 and 18, 2005. The next most popular states in which people would like to live areColorado (#4), New York (#5), Arizona (#6), Oregon (#7), Texas (#8), NorthCarolina (#9), and Tennessee (#10).

Since Harris Interactive last asked thisquestion in 2003, there has been surprisingly little change in the top 15states. Oregon moves from #11 to #7, Virginia drops from #9 to #12 andTennessee re-enters the top 15 after falling out of the top tier in 2003.

One interesting thing to note is that eight of the 15 states are in theWest and six of them are in the South. New York is the anomaly, representingthe mid-Atlantic region, and there are no states from the Midwest or Northeastin the top 15.

TOP US CITIES
Following New York City's lead as a top U.S. city people would choose tolive in or near, the next four cities are all in the West -- San Diego (#2),Las Vegas (#3), San Francisco (#4) and Seattle (#5). The Midwest makes thelist with Chicago at #6 and rounding out the top 10 are Denver (#7), Honolulu(#8), Atlanta (#9) and Portland, Oregon (#10).

Returning to the list of the 15 top cities this year are San Antonio at#14 and Nashville at #15. Nashville has not been in the top 15 since 2000.Interestingly, since Harris Interactive last asked the question in 2003, thecities from Florida that were on the top 15 list (Orlando, Tampa and Miami)have all dropped off, perhaps related to the 2004 devastation that occurred inFlorida as a result of hurricane Ivan.

This article was published 8/12/05 by Harris Interactive.