This is the season for year-end statistics and Pandora Radio has now released a festive infographic just for the occasion. The folks behind the online streaming service generated a map of the United States that shows which states listen to the most holiday music during the holiday season.
According to their findings, the most holiday spirit can be found in Utah, where 19% of their Pandora users are consistently spinning Christmas music throughout the winter months. Lagging in last place are Nevada and New Mexico, where only 8% of users are rocking around the Christmas tree. Speaking of which, Pandora also found that “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” was the most popular song played in the North Pole (Alaska).
As one might expect, Pandora’s holiday listening map shows a direct correlation between snowy weather and snowy music. This is illustrated with a telling gradient of dark blue to light blue across the continental 48, representing the most holiday music streamed to the least holiday music streamed, respectively. It is clear that the further North you travel, the more jolly the listening habits become.
States that are hit with all that nice-and-icy winter weather, such as Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, boast a deep shade of blue on the map. Therefore, Pandora listeners in these states do the most jingling and ring-ting-tingling throughout the holiday season. On the other hand, warmer states like California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida are much lighter on the spectrum, and on the Christmas cheer.
Surprisingly, the trend flips around entirely with New York, which sticks out as the only light-colored state on the Northern perimeter of the map. Users in the Empire State are apparently still caught up in their regular music mixes by the time Santa comes to town.
In another statistical tidbit, Pandora examined which day outside of the holiday season gets the most holiday music play. It turns out that a great many users celebrate “Christmas in July” on July 25th. They also provided data on the relationship between gender and holiday music. It was discovered that women create Christmas music playlists at a rate of 88% more than men.