If you were to ask which states were the most globally curious, you may think of the traditional gateway states. However, the Global Curiosity Index, a new study by EveryMarket, an online platform that sells international beauty, home, and food products, reveals a different reality.
The Index researchers based the scoring on a combination of search interest for beauty-, home-, and food-related terms, determined via Google Trends data; specialty retail density derived from the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns 2023; and global community ties, as determined by country-of-origin data from the American Community Survey 2024.
The top three globally curious states are what you might expect: New York (with a score of 99), California (94.7), and Florida (86.1). But three of the top 10 don’t quite fit the picture: Virginia at No. 4, Colorado at No. 6, and Hawaii at No. 7.
The Global Curiosity Index Top 10 (and total score)
- No. 1: New York (99)
- No. 2: California (94.7)
- No. 3: Florida (86.1)
- No. 4: Virginia (85)
- No. 5: Massachusetts (83.3)
- No. 6: Colorado (79.4)
- No. 7: Hawaii (78.6)
- No. 8: Maryland (76.4)
- No. 9: Illinois (74.8)
- No. 10: District of Columbia (73)
Below, EveryMarket explains the findings and examines what gives these states the edge in global curiosity.
Virginia Beats Massachusetts (Barely)
Virginia lands at No. 4, 1.7 points ahead of Massachusetts (85 vs 83.3). But The Old Dominion doesn’t beat The Bay State on everything.
Massachusetts leads on search interest (99.3) and community ties (88.3). Store density is what gives Virginia its edge, at 62.6 versus 43.9. Virginia's search interest is also high, coming in at 95.4, higher than Florida’s 77.2.
Stocked shelves can make the difference in ranking. Yet inland, where the community ties are thinner, something else has to make up for it.
Colorado is the Highest Landlocked State
Colorado’s composite score is 79.4, making it No. 6 in the ranking. The next landlocked state arrives at No. 12, Wyoming, with a score of 68.2.
Breaking down the composite score tells why Colorado is ranked in the top 10. Its search score is 88.1, store density score is 75.1, and community score is 61. A strong search interest score and strong retail density place Colorado higher, even without the strong community ties of the coastal states.
States with two high components in the top 10 make sense. Can one component carry a state?
Hawaii and D.C. in Top 10 Despite Low Community Ties
There are two locales in the top 10 despite having low community ties. Hawaii (78.6) lands at No. 7 with a search score of 99, store density score of 86, and community tie score of 13. It lands in the top 10 almost entirely on food, scoring a 95 out of 100 against 26 for beauty and 11 for home.
D.C. (73), on the other hand, is carried by its store density (100). Additionally, its search score is 79.5, and its community ties score is 21.6. Yet with a population of nearly 700,000, D.C. makes up for the lack of a high community ties score with its density.
New Jersey ties with D.C. on store density at 100, but lands at No. 13 in the rankings because of its lower search interest score (43).
Search interest is the most weighted component. If that is low, can another component make up the difference?
Search Decides the Rankings
Search is the biggest component in the composite score, but it doesn’t cover the three baskets equally. The most searched terms in the index are food-related, outscoring the beauty and home searches in 47 of the 51 places ranked. Only three states trended towards beauty searches, including New York, Florida, and Illinois, and only Kentucky trended toward home searches.
Take Ohio, for example. It ranks ninth, tied with Virginia, on community ties, boasting 93 countries represented. But it lands at No. 31 overall, 27 places behind Virginia. What brings it down? Ohio’s search score of 12.9 is lower than that of 44 other states. Both states have identical community breadth, but opposite outcomes, largely due to search interest.
Still, while global curiosity may start on the coasts, the study shows that it doesn’t end there.
Methodology
The Global Curiosity Score, put together by EveryMarket, was composed of search interest (55%), specialty retail density (25%), and community ties (20%). Search interest was depicted with Google Trends interest-by-subregion, gathered from Aug. 19, 2025, to Aug. 19, 2026. Nine search terms were evaluated, placed in three baskets, including beauty (Korean skincare, Japanese skincare, French pharmacy skincare), food (gochujang, miso paste, matcha), and home (japandi, Scandinavian decor, and Korean home decor).
Retail density is derived from the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns 2023, including specialty food stores (NAICS 445299) and cosmetics, beauty supply, and perfume stores (NAICS 446120) per 100,000 residents. Global community ties are based on the number of countries of birth with at least 1,000 residents in each state, taken from the American Community Survey 2024 five-year estimates (table B05006).
Any state above the 95th percentile was capped at 95th-percentile value before scores were scaled 0-100. The trends are relative, not a count of people. Small-state figures are unstable, and Wyoming is an example of this (search 100, community ties 0, No. 12). Community ties favor larger states, and there is a three-way tie at 100 on store density because of the cap.
This story was produced by EveryMarket and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
