Four of the top 10 states in energy efficiency are from the Great Lakes region, according to WalletHub, a personal finance advice website that measured the energy use of cars and homes in each of the lower 48 states.
Of the Great Lake states, New York (2), Wisconsin (3), Minnesota (6) and Michigan (10) are in the top 10. Other Great Lakes states ranked as follows: Indiana (19), Ohio (23), Illinois (26) and Pennsylvania (39).
WalletHub determined efficiency in homes by “calculating the ratio between total residential energy consumption per capita and annual degree days.” Car-related efficiency was measured as a ratio between annual vehicle miles driven and gallons of gasoline used.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Climatic Data Center, the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the Federal Highway Administration suggests that home energy use was proportionally larger than car-related energy use, according to WalletHub. The group weighted both to create an overall ranking of efficiency that reflects energy consumption on a national scale.