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And if you live in one of these North Dakota towns, you might look in the mirror and see that lazy person staring right back at you.
We’re not trying to be mean; it’s just that the lazy ethos can penetrate from the location into the workplace and no one wants to work with lazy people.
So we got to work late on a Friday night to figure out the places around North Dakota that spend the day on Reddit and get by with the bare minimum. Using data from the latest American Community Survey, we identified criteria associated with laziness for each city.
After crunching all the numbers, here are the ten “Laziest Places in North Dakota” based on data:
Read on to see where the couch potatoes call home or skip to the end to find where your town ranked.
Oh, and by the way, West Fargo is the hardest-working place in ND.
How We Determined The Laziest Places In The Peace Garden State
Like all problems here at Zippia, we start with the data to answer the hard questions. Some might even consider us the hardest working data-crunchers this side of the Mississippi.
In this particular case, we went to the latest version of the American Community Survey looking for answers. As luck would have it, the Census Bureau just released the 2010-2014 5-Yr Estimate which would make this analysis the first of it’s kind with the new data.
After scrolling through what seemed like hundreds of criteria, we settled on this set for the laziest places in North Dakota:
- Lowest average hours worked
- Shortest commute time
- Fewest workers per household (Labor force divided by the number households)
- Highest unemployment rate
- Fewest adults with a college degree
Our thinking went something along the lines of if you can’t bother to go college, don’t spend any time at work, and have only one person per household bringing home the bacon, your town is probably pretty lazy.
After we got the data for the 12 places in North Dakota over 5,000 people, we ranked each place from 1 to 12 for each of the criteria with 1 being the “laziest”.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each to create a lazy index.
Finally, we crowned the place with the lowest lazy index the “Laziest Place In North Dakota”. And, at the end of the day, Devils Lake slacked off its way to the top.
Read the detailed chart below to learn a bit more about why each place ranked where it did.
1. Devils Lake
Population: 7,218College Educated: 19.7%
Unemployment Rate: 2.3%
2. Wahpeton
Population: 7,804College Educated: 23.7%
Unemployment Rate: 4.7%
3. Jamestown
Population: 15,407College Educated: 22.8%
Unemployment Rate: 3.2%
4. Grand Forks
Population: 54,095College Educated: 34.9%
Unemployment Rate: 4.6%
5. Valley City
Population: 6,636College Educated: 27.1%
Unemployment Rate: 1.8%
6. Fargo
Population: 110,725College Educated: 38.6%
Unemployment Rate: 4.2%
7. Mandan
Population: 19,381College Educated: 26.2%
Unemployment Rate: 3.6%
8. Bismarck
Population: 65,123College Educated: 34.0%
Unemployment Rate: 2.4%
9. Williston
Population: 19,849College Educated: 19.4%
Unemployment Rate: 1.1%
10. Dickinson
Population: 19,920College Educated: 25.2%
Unemployment Rate: 2.9%
Slacking Your Way Off To The Bottom
Like we said earlier, trying to determine the laziest places in North Dakota is usually a subjective matter. But if you’re analyzing cities where people don’t work, where a good education is rare, and no one’s willing to put in the long hours, then this is an accurate list of laziness.
Detailed List Of The Laziest Places In North Dakota
| City | Rank |
|---|---|
| Devils Lake | 1 |
| Wahpeton | 2 |
| Jamestown | 3 |
| Grand Forks | 4 |
| Valley City | 5 |
| Fargo | 6 |
| Mandan | 7 |
| Bismarck | 8 |
| Williston | 9 |
| Dickinson | 10 |
| Minot | 11 |
| West Fargo | 12 |
Author
Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.
