The 7 States With the Most Motorcycles Per Person
Just because a state has a lot of people and a lot of motorcycles doesn’t mean it has the most motorcycles per person.
5. New Hampshire (1 motorcycle per 18.0 people)
At fewer than 9,000 square miles, New Hampshire doesn’t have the land mass of either North Dakota or Wyoming, but it does share a love of motorcycles, as the residents of the Live Free or Die state have registered almost 74,000. Something else it shares with the previous two states: It doesn’t have a mandatory helmet law if you’re an adult (24 other states also have age restrictions on going helmet-less).
4. Wisconsin (1 motorcycle per 17.8 people)
Not surprisingly, the state that is home to Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG) is also one of the states with the most motorcycles registered per population size. Wisconsin’s nearly 5.8 million residents have registered more than 324,600 motorcycles. How many of those are Harley-Davidsons, we don’t know.
3. Iowa (1 motorcycle per 16.5 people)
Harley-Davidson rival Polaris Industries (NYSE:PII) may be headquartered in Medina, Minnesota, but it makes its historic and storied Indian Motorcycle brand at its factory in Spirit Lake, Iowa — and until the nameplate was discontinued earlier this year, Polaris made its Victory motorcycles here, too. Iowa’s 3.1 million residents have 189,500 motorcycles registered in their names. It’s also one of only two states that have no motorcycle helmet laws whatsoever (the other is Illinois).
2. South Dakota (1 motorcycle per 8.9 people)
It’s also fitting that for the state that just finished hosting the 77th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, South Dakota should rank so high on the list. An estimated half-million bikers rolled into the Black Hills earlier this month, swelling the town’s population of 7,000 many times over. South Dakota itself is fairly sparsely populated, with only 858,000 residents, so their 95,278 motorcycles gives them one bike per 8.9 people.
1. Montana (1 motorcycle per 5.2 people)
Big Sky Country is only surpassed in land mass by Alaska, Texas, and California, but with 197,000 motorcycles registered to its 1 million inhabitants, Montana is first in states with the most motorcycles registered to residents, or one bike per 5.2 people. On average in the U.S., there is one motorcycle per 35.7 people, which means Montana beats the national average by more than seven times, making it sound like they’re cramming an awful lot of motorcycles into its 147,000 square miles.
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