This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Whether you find swear words vulgar and coarse or use them casually in communication, there is no doubt that profanity is becoming more frequent and acceptable in our society.
We may use them in anger or casually in our everyday vocabulary, cuss words are becoming more of a fixture in our lives. In fact, a Business Insider report found that the average American now uses 80-90 curse words per day – which works out at around five an hour.
But where in the U.S. can you find people who swear more than anywhere else?
Analysts at WordTips uncovered the profanity hotspots of the U.S. and the words they use most…
To discover each U.S. state’s favorite swear word, WordTips gathered tweets from every state and the top 320 most populated cities in the U.S. They filtered the tweets by considering only tweets that were written in English and allowing a maximum of 1 tweet per user per day. The team then collected data on a selection of swear words (and some variations), including: ass, asshole, badass, bastard, bitch, bloody, bullshit, cock, crap, cum, cunt, damn, dick, dickhead, douche, douchebag, fuck, hell, moron, motherfucker, prick, pussy, scum, shit, slut, twat, wanker, whore.
Then, to get information about swear word usage on different dates and times, they retrieved tweets from the 50 most populated cities in the U.S., from 2021-01-01 until 2022-06-01. The team applied the same exclusions noted above before analyzing the swear word usage. All times in this dataset are in UTC – 5 (U.S. Eastern Time).
WordTips combined the results with the 500 most popular names by gender for babies born in the U.S. in 2021 to discover which names swear the most and the least. The name was extracted from the user display name of each Twitter account.
The frequencies in this data are based on unique appearances – each swear word can only be counted once on each tweet towards the total number of appearances. So, if a tweet repeats the same swear word 4 times, it will only count 1 time towards the total.
The data was collected in June 2022.
The States That Swear The Most
Whether you swear casually or use those words to express extreme emotion, Americans are swearing now more than ever – whether on TV, in movies, or on social media. WordTips team analyzed Tweets from all 50 states to determine which places have the most vulgar vocabulary.
Georgia residents are the most profane, with 48 curse words per 1000 posts. Whether ranting about Atlanta’s traffic or a tough loss by a sports team (looking at you, Falcons!), locals from the Peachtree State have plenty to get irate about. The map below shows the most foul-mouthed states in America.
The Top 10 Cities Where Americans Swear the Most and Least
With 56 profanities in every 1000 tweets, the WordTips team has looked at, residents of Atlanta speak with the coarsest of tongues. Meanwhile, mild-mannered Minneapolis natives swear the least, with just 17 curse words per 1000 posts. Here are the most and least foul-mouthed cities in the United States.
The Most Uniquely Popular Swear Word in Each State
‘Shit’ is the curse of choice for 15 U.S. states, making it the most uniquely popular word overall. It is a favorite of the East Coast, with eight on the eastern seaboard favoring it. Meanwhile, ‘fuck’ is preferred in 13 states, including all three on the West Coast.
The Top 10 Swear Worlds Used in America
After analyzing Twitter posts from all over the country was found that ‘fuck’ reigns supreme as the country’s favorite curse word. For every 1,000 tweets analyzed, 11.62 contained the F-word – marginally more than the ten mentions per thousand for ‘shit.
The Top 10 Names That Swear the Most and Least
We all have that one friend or colleague who can’t string a sentence together without swearing. To find out the most and least common names for potty mouths, the WordTips team has researched the darkest corners of Twitter.
With 64 profane messages per 1,000 posts, users named Kai swear the most, while mild-mannered Kimberlys are the least vulgar – with just nine curse words per 1,000 Tweets.
When Do Americans Swear the Most?
Most people don’t use profanities lightly. We say those words to express intense emotion – good and bad. Research by Storyful into language patterns found that swear word usage rose by 41% on Facebook during the pandemic.
With landmark events changing the course of history, it comes as no surprise that Americans have become more dramatic with their language on social media. To analyze this further, we’ve searched through thousands of Twitter posts from the largest cities in America, allowing us to see which days and events spiked the most intense of emotions.
Events Two events stood out for X-rated outbursts above all others. On January 6th, 2021, the world stood and watched as a mob of Donald Trump supporters attacked the Capitol Building. More recently, on May 24th, 2022, the country was rocked by the deadly mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX – in which nineteen students and two teachers were murdered.
Days of the Week Tuesday is America’s favorite day of the week to let rip on Twitter, with 39 curse words per 1000 tweets. This could be due to midweek work blues as “hump day” Wednesday (38 per 1000 tweets) comes in second.
Hours of the Day They say nothing good happens after midnight, and our data shows that Americans are at their most profane during these hours. Swearing saw a spike at 1 am, where 52 posts per 1000 tweets contained curse words.
Holidays There’s something about Independence Day that gets people of America swearing – 15 tweets per 1000 posts on the 4th of July contained profanity. The empowerment and pride of celebrating the country’s birth clearly charge emotions for the country.
Key Findings:
‘Fuck’ is America’s most commonly used swear word, with 11.62 uses for every 1000 posts on Twitter.
With 48 curse words per 1000 tweets, dwellers of Georgia use the most profanities of any U.S. state, with Minnesota (15 per 1000 tweets) swearing the least.
Atlanta (56 curse words per 1000 posts) is America’s sweariest city, while Minneapolis citizens (17 per 1000 posts) swear the least.
With 15 U.S. states using ‘shit’ more than any other swear word, it is the most uniquely popular profanity.
adam
to make a shore
I don’t like how they say bad words because that is wrong
why are you reading this post then? its about ‘bad’ words.
ToT