NJ is 6th in the U.S. for using swear words. Guess who’s 1st?

No, I’m not in your car during rush hour, so I have no idea what actually might come out of your mouth when somebody cuts you off or tailgates you too closely or hogs the left lane. But if you’re in New Jersey, there’s a good chance that a swear word is forthcoming.

And in fact, all over America, swear words are becoming more and more prevalent.

An article on word.tips sought to find not only the most common swearwords used in the U.S. but which state is using them the most. The article also says that the pandemic may have been the catalyst for the increase in swearing. It cites research from Storyful which found that profanities rose by 41% on Facebook from 2019 to 2021.

To find out which swear words are most popular across the country, word.tips actually analyzed tweets from all 50 U.S. states and 320 cities. They collected data on a variety of the most commonly-used profanities (and variations of those words) and matched them up with the tweet’s location to see which places use the most profanity.

And here’s what they found. With 48 curse words per 1000 tweets, residents of Georgia use the most profanities of any U.S. state. (The U.S. city that uses swearwords the most is Atlanta.) Minnesota (15 per 1000 tweets) swears the least.

NJ came in 6th in the curse word hierarchy.

And just in case you’re wondering what the most commonly-used swear word is, America’s favorite is the F-word, with 11.62 uses for every 1000 posts on Twitter.

The article quotes a Business Insider report which found that the average American now uses 80-90 curse words per day - which works out at around five an hour. But the good news is that according to this report, swearing is actually good for you! Not only are people who curse perceived to be more genuine and sincere, but cursing has also been found to provide emotional relief.