Research reveals the US states with the highest interest in public Wi-Fi

What’s the news?

Thanks to a study by the Saily eSIM app, we now have a better understanding of where in the US people are most likely to be using public Wi-Fi. The company’s research focused on the levels of public interest in the subject in each state.

Saily’s team analyzed Google search volumes for queries like “free Wi-Fi” and "public Wi-FI” across all 50 states and territories, including Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, adjusting for population. The data shows that six states have significantly higher per capita Wi-Fi-related search activity than others, and that might be a problem.

Connecting to public Wi-Fi networks can put users at risk of man-in-the-middle attacks and data exposure. We’ll explain why that is later, but for now, let’s take a closer look at the data.

The results

Saily ranked all 50 states and territories (including Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico) using a 0 to 100 scoring system, with 0 representing the state with the lowest search volumes per capita. Six states or territories managed to score below 20 on that scale — from lowest to highest, they were Puerto Rico, Wyoming, Idaho, Maine, South Dakota, and California. 

A low ranking is good news. The less people are interested in accessing public Wi-Fi, the fewer potential victims there are for Wi-Fi related cyberattacks. 

At the other end of the scale, coming in with scores of 55 up to 87, were North Carolina, Maryland, Nevada, New York, and Louisiana. Those five states showed significantly higher per capita search activity than others, though the study didn’t provide insight into why that might be.

One part of the US topped the list though, and it wasn’t actually a state — Washington, D.C., led the pack with its score of 100. Remember, Saily’s researchers corrected for population size, so even though Washington, D.C., is a relatively small area of the US, public Wi-Fi search volumes are statistically much higher there than they should be.

What’s the news?

Thanks to a study by the Saily eSIM app, we now have a better understanding of where in the US people are most likely to be using public Wi-Fi. The company’s research focused on the levels of public interest in the subject in each state.

Saily’s team analyzed Google search volumes for queries like “free Wi-Fi” and "public Wi-FI” across all 50 states and territories, including Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, adjusting for population. The data shows that six states have significantly higher per capita Wi-Fi-related search activity than others, and that might be a problem.

Connecting to public Wi-Fi networks can put users at risk of man-in-the-middle attacks and data exposure. We’ll explain why that is later, but for now, let’s take a closer look at the data.

The results

Saily ranked all 50 states and territories (including Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico) using a 0 to 100 scoring system, with 0 representing the state with the lowest search volumes per capita. Six states or territories managed to score below 20 on that scale — from lowest to highest, they were Puerto Rico, Wyoming, Idaho, Maine, South Dakota, and California. 

A low ranking is good news. The less people are interested in accessing public Wi-Fi, the fewer potential victims there are for Wi-Fi related cyberattacks. 

At the other end of the scale, coming in with scores of 55 up to 87, were North Carolina, Maryland, Nevada, New York, and Louisiana. Those five states showed significantly higher per capita search activity than others, though the study didn’t provide insight into why that might be.

One part of the US topped the list though, and it wasn’t actually a state — Washington, D.C., led the pack with its score of 100. Remember, Saily’s researchers corrected for population size, so even though Washington, D.C., is a relatively small area of the US, public Wi-Fi search volumes are statistically much higher there than they should be.