Contrary to rumors, we are not all flannel-wearing, ski-loving hicks. Here are 7 myths about New Hampshire that are simply not true.
When I was growing up in New York a long time ago and told people I was moving to New Hampshire, more than one person said, “That’s nice. What state is that in?” That was my first encounter with the misperceptions about my adopted home, and I’ve been dealing with it ever since. Here are some more Granite State myths—some of which might have a soupcon of truth, but mostly are pure bunk.
Myth 1: We all live in the boonies, building our log cabins and churning our own butter beneath pine trees
Maybe we should blame this one on one of the state’s most famous residents, poet laureate Robert Frost who a century ago wrote of the state’s flora, “The woods are lovely, dark and deep.” Okay, the truth is there are nearly 5 million acres of forest land, covering 82 percent of the state according to the state Division of the New Hampshire Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, but that isn’t all there is.
New Hampshire has large urban centers, mostly in the southern part of the state, including Nashua, Manchester, Concord, Portsmouth, and Salem. These are real cities, with sidewalks, tall buildings, mayors, and yes, running water. And around those cities we also have suburbs. Over 60 percent of New Hampshire residents live in urban areas, according to the U.S. Census.
Myth 2: We all love winter
Some of us really are not in love with 4:15 p.m. sunsets, snow, ice, and down parkas. At 10 percent of the population, the state has one of the highest incidents of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), or as some call it, the clinical version of the winter blues, in the United States, according to the National Library of Medicine.
Myth 3: We all ski, and we’re all good at it
Do a lot of people love and excel at winter sports in the state? Definitely. After all, skiing is a big part of our economy, and we are home to winter Olympic champion skiers Bode Miller, Penny Pitou, Hannah Kearney, and Tyler Walker. But it’s not a majority of our population. According to Ski NH, of the over 2 million people who come here to Alpine ski each year, 69 percent are from out of state and about one in 10 households in the state have someone who regularly goes downhill skiing.
Myth 4: We don’t pay taxes
There is indeed no sales or state income tax, but trust us, that doesn’t mean we don’t fork over our share. We pay property tax; lots of it. New Hampshire has the fourth highest property tax rate in the country, according to WalletHub. The average American household pays approximately $3,100 a year in property tax; New Hampshire homeowners pay more than twice that—between $6,300 and $6,800, according to smartasset.com. And don’t think that gets you off the hook if you’re an apartment dweller. Property taxes are always factored into monthly rent.
Myth 5: We’re all conservative, especially when it comes to politics
Perhaps that stereotype is in part due to our Live-Free-or-Die state motto and our state emblem, which features a kind of grumpy Old Man of the Mountain. But the stats tell a different story. The majority, 40 percent of New Hampshire voters, are registered independent or undeclared, 33 percent Republican, and 28 percent Democrat.
Myth 6: We’re just like Vermont
We look like twins on a map, but New Hampshire and Vermont are different in many ways. They have the Green Mountains. Ours are the Whites. They have a state income tax; we don’t. Vermont is more rural and less populated, with 645,000 residents according to the Vermont Department of Health, compared to New Hampshire’s 1,422,166. Then there’s the whole laidback Bernie Sanders vibe with our neighbors to the west while we’re still vibing a little rugged individualism energy.
Myth 7: We’re all unsophisticated country bumpkins
I don’t think so. New Hampshire is ranked first in the country for adult literacy and fourth in the nation for child literacy according to the John Corcoran Foundation. And the state has the second-highest average IQ (Intelligence Quotient) in the country, with an average of 104.2, barely behind the first-ranking state, Massachusetts, with 104.3. The national average is 98 according to the World Population Review.
And yes, we’re cultured too. We have opera houses, entertainment complexes, and some impressive museums with national reputations. There’s the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, one of the top academic art museums in the country, Manchester’s Currier Museum of Art, known as one of the best small art collections in the country, including an original Frank Lloyd Wright house, and the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, which has one of only three planetariums in North America.
