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

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…

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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 data, 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 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.

State Week Category
Alabama 28th Jul – 3rd Aug Summer Lovers
Alaska 27th Jan – 3rd Feb Cleanslaters
Arizona 30th Dec – 5th Jan Cleanslaters
Arkansas 23rd Dec – 29th Dec Scroogers
California 24th Feb – 2nd Mar String Alongers
Colorado 19th May – 25th May Spring Cleaners
Connecticut 9th Dec – 15th Dec Scroogers
Delaware 28th Oct – 3rd Nov Fallin’ For Anothers
D.C. 24th Feb – 2nd March String Alongers
Florida 9th Dec – 15th Dec Scroogers
Georgia 18th Aug – 24th Aug Summer Lovers
Hawaii 27th Jan – 2nd Feb Cleanslaters
Idaho 12th May – 18th May Spring Cleaners
Illinois 3rd Mar – 9th Mar Spring Cleaners
Indiana 26th May – 1st Jun Spring Cleaners
Iowa 30th Jun – 6th Jul Summer Lovers
Kansas 17th Feb – 23rd Feb String Alongers
Kentucky 27th Jan – 2nd Feb Cleanslaters
Louisiana 12th May – 18th May Spring Cleaners
Maine 22nd Sep – 28th Sep Fallin’ For Anothers
Maryland 16th Jun – 22nd Jun Summer Lovers
Massachusetts 20th Jan – 26th Jan Cleanslaters
Michigan 3rd Feb – 9th Feb Heartbreakers
Minnesota 24th Mar – 30th Mar Spring Cleaners
Mississippi 28th Oct – 3rd Nov Fallin’ For Anothers
Missouri 28th Oct – 3rd Nov Fallin’ For Anothers
Montana 14th Oct – 20th Oct Fallin’ For Anothers
Nebraska 9th Dec – 15th Dec Scroogers
Nevada 24th Feb – 2nd Mar String Alongers
New Hampshire 21st Apr – 27th Apr Spring Cleaners
New Jersey 18th Aug – 24th Aug Summer Lovers
New Mexico 28th Oct – 3rd Nov Fallin’ For Anothers
New York 3rd Feb – 9th Feb Heartbreakers
North Carolina 17th Feb – 23rd Feb String Alongers
North Dakota 14th Apr – 20th Apr Spring Cleaners
Ohio 30th Dec – 5th Jan Cleanslaters
Oklahoma 17th Mar – 23rd Mar Spring Cleaners
Oregon 2nd Dec – 8th Dec Scroogers
Pennsylvania 7th Apr – 13th Apr Spring Cleaners
Rhode Island 11th Nov – 17th Nov Fallin’ For Anothers
South Carolina 17th Mar – 23rd Mar Spring Cleaners
South Dakota 30th Jun – 6th Jul Summer Lovers
Tennessee 28th Oct – 3rd Nov Fallin’ For Anothers
Texas 17th Feb – 23rd Feb String Alongers
Utah 25th Nov – 1st Dec Scroogers
Vermont 18th Nov – 24th Nov Fallin’ For Anothers
Virgina 4th Nov – 10th Nov Fallin’ For Anothers
Washington 10th Mar – 16th Mar Spring Cleaners
West Virginia 13th Jan – 19th Jan Cleanslaters
Wisconsin 21st Jul – 27th Jul Summer Lovers
Wyoming 16th Jun – 22nd Jun Summer Lovers

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

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