The most mis-mapped US states

According to the 55,387 players of the online game 'Find the Location of ...' Texas, California and Virginia are the most well-known states in the United States. Based on the results of this popular mapping game North Dakota, Missouri and Wyoming are the least well-known states

FlagWhiz.com's map game Find the Location of ... requires players to position the outlines of states onto a near empty map - which only contains the place-name labels for the 48 states of the contiguous United States. The game is fun in itself but FlagWhiz.com has also spent some time analyzing the results to discover which are the most mis-mapped states by players of the game - revealing some interesting insights into which US states are the most and least known - at least in terms of where they are located.

In each round of 'Find the location of ...' you are given the outline of a US state. You simply need to drag the state onto its correct position on the map based on the position of its capital city. Once you press 'done' you are shown by how many miles you missed the state's correct location on the map.

FlagWhiz.com has now posted a chart to Reddit showing the results of the 55,387 games played so far. The chart organizes the 48 contiguous states by the average number of miles each state was mis-mapped by the game's players. Texas was the least mis-mapped state with an average mis-mapping 27.05 miles. The most mis-mapped state was Wyoming, which on average players got wrong by 90.67 miles.

The chart has received its fair share of criticism on Reddit. With many posters making the point that the quiz is more of a test of how well players know the names of the state capitals than a test of the geography of US states.