The media was blown away that Donald Trump was able to pull out some of the rust belt swing states during the latest election. But places like Pennsylvania spoke: It was time for a change, and average, blue collar Americans in places like Pennsylvania played a huge role.
You know, the rednecks. After all, it’s called Pennsyltucky for a reason. Places where people who vote one way, who stick to their own, and who would rather rely on each other than on the government.
It’s not hard to measure the places where these rednecks in Pennsylvania revolted the most. We just have to know which cities are the most redneck in the state is all.
After analyzing 245 cities with a population between 2,500 and 60,000, we’ve finally determined these are the cities in Pennsylvania where rednecks most likely live, and thusly impacted the state’s voting patterns most prominently:
- Washington (Photos)
- Mechanicsburg (Photos)
- Shippensburg
- Pittston (Photos)
- Chambersburg (Photos)
- Lewistown
- Shrewsbury (Photos)
- Sayre (Photos)
- Warren (Photos)
- Lancaster (Photos)
Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town ranked.
For more Pennsylvania reading, check out:
What election criteria did we use?
In order to rank the most rustbelt redneck cities in PA, we had to determine what criteria makes a redneck.
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using Yelp and Google Maps, this is the criteria we used:
The dictionary definition categories
- Small towns
- Least amount of high school graduates
- Lives in the south or midwest
And the stereotypical categories
- Number of dive bars per city
- Number of mobile home parks per capita
- Number of tobacco stores per city
- Number of guns and ammo stores per city
- Walmarts, Waffle Houses, Bass Pro Shops, and Dollar Generals nearby
Note: For the sake of getting reliable numbers, we counted places within a city’s border, as well as within a short driving distance.
If you’d like to see the complete list of cities, from most to least redneck, we put in a list of the cities in a chart at the bottom. Hope you’re on there if you want to be.
1. Washington
Population: 13,720
Gun stores per capita: 2nd in PA
Waffle House rank: 33rd in Pennsylvania
High school graduation rate: 77%
Walmart rank: 36th
Dern tootin’, Washington! You have the official bragging rights as being named the most redneck city in the entire state of PA. Which means you impacted the election in ways you never imagined.
You may now brag to your friends and share this endlessly on your Facebook walls.
Lets see why. The Washington area has the 2nd most places you can buy guns in the entire state. There’s nothing rednecks like to do more than shoot things and blow stuff up. Except mudding.
You’ve got two Waffle Houses here, and a Walmart, of course. Every redneck town has to have a Walmart, right? Where else are you gonna get your cheap bait while the wifey picks out an outfit for the big barbecue?
There’s also a Field & Stream superstore and a Gander Mountain, for those classier rednecks with paychecks.
Washington has a population that’s 81% white, and very blue collar. More than 20% of the folks here didn’t graduate high school. They were most likely too busy with other more important matters.
Like mudding.
2. Mechanicsburg
Population: 8,966
Mobile home parks per capita: 3rd most in PA
Bars per capita: 3rd
Fishing/bait shops per capita: 3rd in the state
Where are you gonna go to get your bait and a cold one? Rednecks on the western side of the Susquehanna know it’s in Mechanicsburg.
There’s certainly no Hillary supporters here. No siree!
Located not too far from Harrisburg, this place has the 3rd most bars capita, and the 3rd most places to get fishing gear in the state.
There are also an extremely high number of mobile home/trailer parks in the Mechanicsburg area. There’s nothing more redneck than throwing back a case of Old Milwaukee with the boys down by the pool.
Mechanicsburg is also home to the annual Jubilee Day festival, an event so redneck it doesn’t even have a website.
3. Shippensburg
Population: 5,371
Tobacco stores per capita: 17th
Walmart rank: 2nd
Mobile home parks per capita: 2nd in the state
The Clinton campaign should have spent more time in rednecky areas like Shippensburg for sure. It’s not hard to find: Take I-81 south from Harrisburg to a tiny redneck spleck in the south central part of the state. It’s 94% white here, and judging by the income levels, it has a very blue collar feel.
Shippensburg has the honor of having the 2nd-highest Walmart factor in PA. For a redneck, having a Walmart all to your own is like short lines at Disneyland.
Like Mechanicsburg, the mobile home/trailer park ratio per person is through the roof.
4. Pittston
Population: 7,740
Bars per capita: 15th in Pennsylvania
High school graduation rate: 79%
Waffle House rank: 19th
People in places like Pittston were definitely hit in the wallet with all of the jobs that have gone overseas. Trump spoke to their wallets (as well as their hearts).
Pittston is south of Scranton along I-81, right on the banks of the Susquehanna. While there are a sheer number of bars in the area, you can bet the rednecks here spend a majority of their time trolling in the river. The Susquehanna has a ton of smallmouth bass and catfish.
5. Chambersburg
Population: 20,217
High school graduation rate: 74%
Walmart rank: 16
Fishing/bait shops per capita: 18th in PA
People said ‘dumb, white Americans’ helped Donald Trump win the Presidency. That means places like Chambersburg. (And we say that lovingly).
Chambersburg rednecks did a good job of not studying very much, since 1 out of 4 of them didn’t graduate high school. But just think how much higher they would’ve finished on this list had they just skipped class to go hunting like their buddies did.
6. Lewistown
Population: 8,372
High school graduation rate: 76%
Walmart rank: 8th
Gun stores per capita: 6th in PA
There’s certainly no shortage of rednecks who supported Trump in Lewistown. As teens, the Lewistown rednecks ditched school almost as much as the Chambersburg kids. Or spent their time loitering around the various trailer parks in the area.
Down by the banks of the Juniata River, Lewistown is sort of near State College, but far enough away that the Penn State kids have probably never met them. Unless they went on a weird road trip and stopped here for gas. Oh, the stories they told.
7. Shrewsbury
Population: 3,832
Tobacco stores per capita: 8th in PA
Walmart rank: 1st in the state
Gun stores per capita: 3rd
Woo-wee! Shrewsbury ranks as the best place for rednecks when it comes to Walmarts per capita. And, several people have agreed that Shrewsbury is a very rednecky town. One former resident said,
“All the guys bring there trucks and park em at the end of the parking lot and hangout at the Walmart in Shrewsbury its so funny.”
If there were any Clinton signs in these parts, they probably had some bullet holes in them. Shrewsbury has one of the highest number of gun stores per capita in the state.
8. Sayre
Population: 5,574
Fishing/bait shops per capita: 25th
Walmarts per capita: 20th
Tobacco stores per capita: 7th
If you take Route 220 on your way to Ithaca, NY, Sayre is the last redneck town you’ll come to before the state line. And, you can bet the rednecks here have a good ole’ time, out in the middle of nowhere. There’s probably no one around to bust them for poaching. Just pretend you didn’t see that ‘No Fishing’ sign, young rednecks of Sayre.
The number of tobacco stores in the area is really high here as well. What we call the ‘chew factor’ is a 7.
Perfect Trump territory.
9. Warren
Population: 9,672
Bars per capita: 11th in the state
Chew factor: 27th
Gun stores per capita: 10th in PA
Way up by the Allegheny National Forest, and along the banks of the Allegheny River is the small town of Warren, which certainly has a lot of rednecks within its borders.
In fact, it’s 98% white here. You can bet outsiders are probably treated with respect, until they cross someone up here. And you’d better watch out, cause there are certainly several options for ammo in the area.
10. Lancaster
Population: 59,372
Mobile home parks in area: 11th in PA
Bars per capita: 1st
Chew factor: 14th
Lancaster cracks the top 10 for redneck cities that had a big impact on this election. You knew you’d most likely see a city from Lancaster County on here, didn’t you? Well, the big giant city of Lancaster is just crawling with rednecks. And the data proves it.
There are more bars (and really divey bars) per capita here than in any other place. You can turn a corner in Lancaster and stumble blindly into a bar on some streets here. The Busch Light delivery dude probably feels like he’s driving through a parade when he pulls up every morning.
Finally, did you know Lancaster was originally called Hickory Town? Perhaps that’s because there were a lot of hicks here back in the day.
Hicks love Trump. Plain and simple.
There You Have It
If you’re looking at rednecks who revolted against Democrats, and who most likely supported Donald Trump, this is an accurate list.
If you’re curious enough, here are the least likely places in PA that supported Trump. Which means Hillary supporters.
- Fox Chapel (Pop. 5,393)
- Fernway (Pop. 20,000)
- Westmont (Pop. 5,159)
- Franklin Park (13,162)
- Upper St. Clair (Pop. 19,233)
