CenturyLink Home Phone: Talk Forever—We Don’t Mind

The Chattiest States in America

Do you still write to your pen pal from middle school? Do you call your grandma more than twice a year? Whether it’s email, phone, or good ol’ snail mail, some people keep in touch better than others.

How well does your home ZIP code keep up on communications? If you’re Nebraska, you’re the chattiest of them all. If you’re in DC or New Hampshire, you fall under the recluse category.

On average, Americans spend about 44 minutes per day talking on the phone, texting, and emailing. Nebraska averages over an hour; meanwhile, DC averages just under 13 minutes a day.

Read on to see if the place you call home is full of chatty Cathys or people who prefer to be offline and out of sight.

Interesting Findings

• On average, Americans spend approximately 44 minutes per day chatting it up—that’s roughly 268 hours each year. If Americans got paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 to converse, each year each person would receive an extra $1,940 (before taxes of course).
• Women spend an average of 46 minutes per day communicating, while men spend only 38. For women, that totals nearly 280 hours a year—a.k.a. enough time to fly around the world six times.
• In Nebraska, the #1 chattiest state, people spend one hour and 6 minutes per day giving a friend a ring, shooting emails, and putting letters in the mail.
• Every year, the average Maryland local spends more than 2 weeks talking to their loved ones. That’s enough time to drive across the US roughly two times (if you’re driving 8 hours per day).
• People in Montana aren’t big on phone usage or allocating their time conversing, but the state is also home to nine National Parks, which could be the reason why people prefer stunned silence.
• Of all the places we analyzed, people in DC spend the least time chatting—a mere 12.5 minutes a day. Over the course of a year, that adds up to 204 hours or 8.5 days. In other words, DC locals spend only 2.3% of their time each year reaching out.

Methodology

To see how many hours a day Americans chat on the phone, email their family, or send mail to their friends, the team at Internet Service Partners analyzed data from the 2015-2019 American Time Use Survey (ATUS) by state. The data did not include any time on telephone, mail, or email related to work.

Alaska and South Dakota were not included because their estimates did not meet the ATUS standard for quality and reliability. Some states shared the same amount of “chat” time, and as such, tied.

Call Me Maybe

Are people in your state more social than you thought? Quieter than you pictured? Gear up with CenturyLink internet and phone services so you can talk to your friends and family as much or little as you please.