Not many Americans want to live in the middle of nowhere. Most likely, places that would fall into this category would have few if any utilities; social services like fire, police and emergency services; health care; and high-speed connections to the internet. However, a very few people don’t want to be with other people and would rather be walled off from most of the outside world. It may be tranquil, but it may not be terribly safe.
In LawnStarter’s “2022’s Best States to Live Off the Grid,” researchers looked at 21 metrics across the 50 states. These included population density in rural areas, electricity and waste laws for remote places, phone coverage, road quality, solar and wind power, temperature, access to hospitals and natural and man-made disasters.
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Among the primary conclusions of the study:
Flyover states, it turns out, are indeed an ideal place to land and live off the grid. Nine of our top 10 are fully or partly in the Great Plains region of the U.S. Texas claims the No. 1 spot, while Missouri finishes in 10th place.
Scores could range from 0 to 100.
Texas is the second-largest state in the United States, based on a population of 29,145,505. However, it ranks 26th in population density. It has several of the largest cities in America, including Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. It also has a large number of counties with fewer than 10,000 residents. Many of these are hundreds of miles from the big Texas metros.
These are the 20 best states for living off the grid and their overall scores:
- Texas (71.85)
- North Dakota (65.85)
- Wyoming (65.46)
- Montana (65.34)
- Iowa (65.24)
- Kentucky (64.06)
- Oklahoma (63.68)
- Minnesota (63.68)
- New Mexico (62.93)
- Missouri (62.24)
- Nebraska (62.16)
- Arkansas (60.92)
- Wisconsin (60.25)
- Oregon (59.88)
- Washington (59.5)
- Idaho (59.36)
- Michigan (58.9)
- Kansas (58.61)
- South Dakota (58.61)
- Illinois (58.32)
Click here to see which are America’s 50 best cities to live in.
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