It doesn’t get much better for Star Wars fans than the month of May. Not only do we all celebrate May the Fourth Be With You, but it’s also the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi hitting theaters (on May 25). That makes it an extra special month for fans everywhere, but which states care most about (sorry, Star Trek fans) the best sci-fi franchise in the history of films?

DEEPER DIVE: 9 Phoenix-based ‘May the 4th be with you’ experiences 

We’re glad you asked.

Methodology

We took the last four years of data from Google Trends to look at which states search most for all things ‘Star Wars’. There were some things we expected, others we didn’t, and a few surprises along the way. Here’s what we found:

California and Arizona (rightfully) rank among the most passionate states

Fun fact: Most of the Star Wars franchise was filmed outside the United States. Where it was filmed inside the U.S. include California (Hollywood, Death Valley, and Redwood National Park) and Arizona (Yuma Desert). So naturally those two states ranked high on this list, with California ranking seventh and Arizona ranking eighth. 

It’s only fitting that the states closest to Star Wars rank high—what’s more, George Lucas is from California, and the Lucas Museum of Natural Art is expected to open in 2025 in Exposition Park in Los Angeles.

Utah and Alaska, um, really like Star Wars

Here’s something we didn’t see coming: the same state ranking No. 1 on the list each of the years that we researched. But here’s Utah, ranking 100 on the Google Trends list in every single year of this survey (2020-2023). Go figure. Alaska wasn’t far behind at second overall, ranking third, second, third, and second in each of the respective year’s rankings. 

We tried to see if there was any special actor who resided in Utah or whether there’s a Star Wars museum in Alaska, but it seems it’s just a niche love for Star Wars in those two states.

Let’s get some Disney+ subscriptions sent down south

Maybe they’re too busy watching SEC football and wagering on college football betting sites to care about anything Star Wars-related, but the south was not well-represented on this list. Specifically, these states finished in the bottom-10 of the overall Star Wars Trends rankings: Mississippi (51st), Louisiana (48th), Georgia (47th), Alabama (45th), and Arkansas (41st). 

In fact, you’ve got to go all the way down the list to Florida (22nd) to find a true Southeastern state on the list—and they’ve got Disney World and the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge park to use as an excuse.

What states are feeling the Star Wars fever in 2023?

While all these numbers are relevant to where they fall closest to the top-ranked state (for this research, that’s literally Utah every year) we want to look at which states had their highest number in 2023. Who’s “making up ground” on Utah?

Here’s the list (and their cumulative rank): Alaska (2nd), Idaho (3rd), California (7th), Wyoming (10th), South Dakota (14th), Nebraska (15th), Vermont (16th), North Dakota (21st), Maine (23rd), New Mexico (30th), and Washington, D.C. (50th).

For what it’s worth, these are the states that cooled on Star Wars the most in 2023 compared to the other years we looked at: Colorado (6th), Minnesota (13th), Missouri (26th), Kentucky (28th), Maryland (43rd), New Jersey (44th).