As the days get shorter this time of year, itās easy to get a tad gloomy and long for the days of bountiful sun in the land of North Carolina sportsbooks. But the chill of winter has an unexpected side effect on people living in places such as the Tar Heel State: The rate at which residents are popping the question and start plans for getting hitched.
From November to Valentineās Day is a period where around 40% of all proposals happen, or so one expert estimates. At BetCarolina.com, we wanted to discover the states where youāre most likely to receive a marriage proposal during this āengagement season.ā So we used Google Trends to combine search interest scores for āengagement ringā and āproposal ideas" during a 30-day span, conducted on November 20, 2024. Then we ranked the 15 states where folks are most likely to pop the question, based on combined search interest scores.
With few states laying claim to the type of romantic autumnal scenery that the Tar Heel State does, itās no wonder that engagement season is a key component of the year, with North Carolina residents posting the second highest search interest score of any state when it came to topics related to getting hitched in 2024.
Rank | State | Total Score |
1 | Alaska | 200 |
2 | Massachusetts | 170 |
3 | Pennsylvania | 165 |
4 | New Jersey | 162 |
5 | North Carolina | 153 |
6 | New York | 150 |
7 | West Virginia | 96 |
8 | Texas | 90 |
T9 | Georgia | 86 |
T9 | Kentucky | 86 |
11 | South Carolina | 85 |
T12 | Florida | 84 |
T12 | Illinois | 84 |
T12 | Virginia | 84 |
15 | Rhode Island | 83 |
This research is exclusive to BetCarolina.com, where we offer the best NC sports betting promo codes as well as stories devoted to non-sports slices of life.
Of the 50 states and Washington D.C. that were surveyed, North Carolinaās total score of 153 points ranked fifth overall.
National leader Alaska had 200 points in total, according to our search interest calculations, taken in a one-month span. Massachusetts (170 points) Pennsylvania (165) and New Jersey (162) also ranked ahead of the Tar Heel State when it came to interest in engagement season topics.
Rounding out the top 10 states interested in seeking information on engagement-related topics were New York (150 points), West Virginia (96), Texas (90), Georgia and Kentucky (86 each). South Carolina (85 points), Florida, Illinois and Virginia were on the outside looking in with scores of 84 apiece, while Rhode Island was the last state to make the top-15 cut with a total score of 83 points.
Still, when it comes to fall-time romance, few states have the type of broad interest in engagement season content that North Carolina residents do. Romantically inclined Tar Heels helped the state post a whopper of a search interest score surrounding topics of romance during 2024.
Now, how many of those couples statewide will go on to form divided households ā that is, with one partner rooting for UNC Chapel Hill and the other favoring Duke? Check out our Duke-UNC basketball odds to keep track of how the eternal college hoops rivals shape up going into their two meetings this season.
USA Today Network photo by Andrew Davis Tucker/The Augusta Chronicle
Author
Christopher Boan is a lead writer at BetCarolina.com specializing in covering state issues. He has covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
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