(soft music)
- [Narrator] Do you like the cold?
Do you want to live in a state with towns
that have names like Devils Lake,
Turtle Lake and Buttzville?
I love Buttzville and I don't know why.
What is going on, every one?
Welcome back to The World According To Briggs.
Let's talk about the Peace Garden State, North Dakota.
North Dakota's nickname is the Peace Garden State
because it's got a peace garden.
The International Peace Garden is a park located
right on the international border with Canada.
The Peace Garden was finished on July 14th, 1932
as a symbol of the peaceful relationship
between the U.S. and Canada.
The word Dakota actually translates to friend,
and they have a lot of friendly people living in this state.
In my experience, people in cold states
tend to be friendlier and less self-absorbed.
I don't know why, but it's just how it is.
North Dakota's biggest negatives are probably the weather
and they don't have many people.
And that is what most people find wrong with this state.
If you're like me, I don't mind either of those.
I don't mind the cold
and I could do with a few less people around me.
Yeah, I don't know why,
especially if I was living in Buttzville.
After losing population, every census since the 1930s,
North Dakota has gained population in the last three,
with the 2020 census showing the biggest gains since 1910.
It looks like they've gained about 15% this time.
There are a lot of reasons
someone would want to move to North Dakota.
I'm gonna tell you about 10 of them right now.
Number 10, it's a happy state.
Like I said, North Dakota has good people
and they are happy.
North Dakota is considered to be
one of the top 10 happiest states to live in in the U.S.
when it comes to overall wellbeing community environment.
And that's according to different news
and real estate websites.
They always show up in those.
Talk to people from North Dakota and they'll let you know
that this is a great state to live in
and they love the place.
There's a strong family and community vibe going on here.
Number nine, it's tax friendly.
This is always a big factor in how well people like a state.
Taxes are always one of the biggest complaints
from the residents.
Take a look at New Jersey, California and New York,
that's a first thing people from there will tell you.
They hate the taxes!
North Dakota is ranked sixth in the U.S.
for tax friendly states.
The top income tax bracket maxes out at 2.9%.
The effective real estate tax is ranked 28th in the U.S.
so they're middle of the road on that.
Now this is where we always get the comment,
well, they get you other ways.
Correct, they all do.
But some, like North Dakota, don't get you for that much.
Stop typing.
Number eight, good jobs.
North Dakota's job growth rate has stayed steady
at about 1.6% per year.
On average, they've been adding about 6,000 jobs.
Now that's prior to pandemic days,
but in reality, the pandemic didn't affect them too much.
When you add other states
like California's unemployment rate getting to 9% and 10%,
sometimes Oregon, 6%,
Washington, 7%,
New York State was at 10% at one point,
Texas got all the way up to 8%,
that's what it was for most of the states.
But when you look at North Dakota,
they never cracked 5% during the whole pandemic.
I mean, we're not completely out of it,
but they did pretty good.
Their highest was 4.7% unemployment.
Some of the top industries in North Dakota
are oil, gas and mining, agriculture,
manufacturing, construction.
Tech companies have started finding their way
to North Dakota in the last decade too.
So that's pretty cool.
With a shift in remote workers,
North Dakota is looking better all the time.
Sort of like me after five mimosas.
Number seven, it's got a lot of peace and quiet.
Like Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota,
this is a great place to be a hermit
or have neighbors that, I don't know,
threaten to shave your Labradoodle
and give them a charley horses.
Yes, I was that neighbor.
The dog's name was Stanley when I lived in Redondo Beach.
Any time you walked into our backyard,
this old lady right behind us would let Stanley out.
I honestly think she thought people
enjoyed him barking at you
the whole time you were in your own backyard.
Yeah, constantly, nonstop, the whole time!
So one day jokingly,
while I was working on something in the backyard,
I just kind of whispered over the fence,
"Stanley, I'm going to jump over this fence
and give you a bad haircut and a charley horse."
Ah, she heard it, she called the cops on me.
I'm not even kidding.
They showed up at my door
wanting to know why I was threatened to beat up a dog.
This state is filled with farms, ranches
and not many people.
They are actually ranked 47th in population.
On top of that, North Dakota is the least visited state.
Nobody goes there to visit.
No vacations go on here.
I'm sure some do,
but they usually have something to do with family I bet,
or fishing.
They got good fishing there.
With less people here,
you don't have to worry about crowds, or traffic,
or anyone calling the police
on your underground goldfish fighting league.
Number six, decent schools.
You'd think this wouldn't be a thing, but it is.
I mean, they're out there in the North.
Not that many people even visit there or go there,
not that many people
that you'd think things would be lacking
like school funding.
No, they do pretty good.
They might have funding problems, but they still do good.
Statistically speaking,
North Dakota is one of the best states to get an education.
Their high school graduation rate
is ranked seventh in the nation.
They're tied with Wisconsin and Wyoming
with 93.59% graduate from high school.
That's a good number.
Texas has one of the lowest with 83.98%,
California, 85.85, Kentucky, 86.54, West Virginia, 86.83.
So it can get so much worse than almost 94%.
Now keep in mind, that's the statewide average.
I'm sorry if you went to a lame school in North Dakota.
Doesn't mean all of them are lame.
Just the one you went to.
When I see a good graduation rate,
I see solid parenting and talented teachers.
That's all it is.
That's how you get a high graduation rate, high test scores,
parents that are actually focused on their kids
and decent teachers.
Number five, economic opportunity.
North Dakota has a solid economy
because of two things that everyone needs.
Oil and food.
Agriculture has always been a big part
of North Dakota's economy.
So is oil and gas, but nothing like it was in the 2000s.
The oil that started in the early to mid-2000s was big,
did a lot for the state,
infrastructure, rose the GDP, gave people jobs,
it also did some bad things,
violence and some crime, and stuff like that.
But these days it's slowed down considerably
since its peak around 2013.
They still have jobs there
and jobs supporting the oil and gas industry,
just not like it was at its peak.
According to the North Dakota Department
of Mineral Resources,
the total oil rig count in the state
had fallen from 58 active rigs on October 3rd, 2019
to only 11 active rigs on October 3rd, 2020.
At its peak, North Dakota had 217 active rigs
going at one time, and that was in 2012, 2013.
North Dakota's economy ranked third in the U.S.
for both economic outlook and economic performance.
Now, this depends on oil in a big way.
If the price of oil goes up, they start pumping more out.
And so the rigs go live again.
It just depends on the price of oil.
So what this means for you, the average Joe is,
if you move here,
the chances of finding a job now and in the future
look really good.
Number four, they've got a low crime rate.
Yeah, they don't have much crime going on in North Dakota.
Most of their crime has to do with bar fights,
it seems like.
North Dakota is referred to as the Peace Garden State
for a reason.
There's really not a lot of crime in North Dakota.
It's one of the safest states we have.
They're actually ranked as the 18th safest state in the U.S.
The violent crime rate in North Dakota
is less than half the national average.
That's pretty good.
The property crime rate is lower, but not as much.
It's only about 5% lower than the national average.
The chances of you being a victim here of any crime
is one and 356.
There's places in Detroit, you have a one in five chance.
North Dakota's number one crime is,
I bet you'll never guess, package theft.
Yeah, I guess porch pirates are big here.
But really, if that's your biggest issue,
you don't have many problems.
I'm sure the people of Chicago and Detroit
would swap crime sprees with you anytime,
just give them a call.
74% of North Dakota residents
report feeling safe in their state
compared to 55% of Americans.
Yeah, so that's pretty good.
Number three, it's clean.
One of the benefits of not having a lot of people
is you've got a clean environment.
North Dakota ranks fifth in air quality
and third in water quality.
This is good news for anyone with any sort of lung disease
or lung disorder.
Water quality is one of those things
people are really starting to pay attention to
in recent years, probably the last decade.
Breakout Google searches these days are things like,
Hudson River water quality,
Missouri River, Mississippi River water quality.
I typed in water in my Google search,
and the first thing that popped up was,
Vancouver Lake water quality.
That's this little lake not too far from here.
For those of you that worry about water and air quality,
the Peace Garden State are calling for you.
Number two, cheap rent.
Are you a renter looking for a new state?
Are you a fan Otter Pops and show tunes?
That one has nothing to do with North Dakota or this video,
I was just wondering.
But if you are a renter,
North Dakota is a solid place to live.
I'll give you some numbers from 2019.
2020 were about the same, but it was a mess,
and so the stats I don't feel are accurate.
But I think the rental prices
have dropped considerably since 2019.
How often does that happen?
2019, the average rental cost
was 1330 a month in North Dakota.
That's $260 less than the national average of 1590.
Now, I got on rent.com
and looked at some of the cities like Fargo and Minot
just to see what the rental prices were.
They were well below North Dakota's average from 2019.
There were decent places in Fargo,
two bedroom, 1 1/2 bath apartments,
I mean, solid, nice apartments,
didn't have street pharmacist's work in the corner
below your window, these are good places,
they were going for like $900 a month,
which is, well below the 1330.
Get up to Minot, it's a little more expensive,
and I think that's mainly
'cause it's so far out of the way.
But Fargo, Grand Forks, places like that,
it was decent, well below their average.
So I think prices have dropped in North Dakota
over the last year, which is good if you're moving there.
I mean, who doesn't like cheap rent
and a place that doesn't include bars on the windows.
All right, before we get to number one,
don't forget we got another channel called On this day.
There's a link for it down below.
We'd really appreciate if you'd check that one out,
we're trying to grow that one.
All right, onto number one.
And number one, a great place to raise a family.
Like I said earlier,
North Dakota is a great place to raise a family.
And I think this is its best feature.
Put it this way, if you like your kids,
move them to North Dakota.
If you have a lukewarm relationship with your offspring,
try New Jersey.
North Dakota was ranked the third best state
to raise a family.
There were some key factors on why this is:
Average family salary is good.
Childcare costs are low.
Infant mortality rate is low.
And the percentage of families living in poverty
is only 10%.
Now, if 10% sounds bad,
not when you compare it to places like Mississippi,
which is 19.7%.
Yeah, I'm not even kidding.
Fargo and Bismarck are among America's top 10 best places
to raise a family.
Yeah, two cities in the same state.
(upbeat music)
All right, that's today's video.
Hope you guys enjoyed it.
Hope you got some information out of it.
Everybody have a great day.
Be nice to each other.
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