Are Iowans Bullies After This Week? No, But Our Neighbors Are

The amazing and enjoyable Iowa Hawkeye's victory this weekend didn't come without some whining. Fans, mainly non-Iowa ones, felt the Iowa faithful were booing injured Penn State players. Much of this was cleared up with the realization the fans were booing the convenient timing (and clock-time stopping) of the injuries and, they were a bit sketchy.

All in all, when it comes to bullying, my thoughts are we're pretty nice. I mean, there's the expression Iowa Nice after all. But one state that's (allegedly) not too nice, our neighbors to our northeast Wisconsin.

Why so mean, Wisconsin?

Now, I want to preface this piece by saying this is not an opinion piece. I've lived in Wisconsin and, I rather like the people there. I felt they were nice and, well, very typical Midwestern. And yes, I mean that in a GOOD way. So what I am sharing with you is from a WalletHub study that found Sconnie's have the second-worst bullying problem in America. PS, the same study found Iowa was #18.

Wisconsin's biggest issues according to the study are the state has the highest percentages of kids having fistfights on school grounds, and Wisconsin also ranks #3 for anti-bullying laws and #2 in over prevalence of bullying.

What about Iowa?

As mentioned above, Iowa was #18 overall in the study. A study where lower scores are better. Iowa's biggest issue is the prevalence of bullying. We finished #13. Despite this, Iowa's 18th finish makes us less, um, friendly to bullies than border states Wisconsin and Missouri. They finished #4.

Oh, and only 47 states and Washington D.C. made the list due to lack of data. Minnesota, another border state, was not a part of this study. Illinois was #29, South Dakota was #36 and Nebraska was #38.

Overall, the top 10 states with the worst bullying problems are: