While New York's Williamsburg neighborhood is universally regarded as the hipster capital of the world, New York actually placed second in a recent statewide ranking.
Minnesota edged out the Empire State to take the top spot as "The Most Hipster State in the US," according to a recent BuzzFeed ranking.
What Makes a 2014 Hipster?
For the uninitiated, hipsters are generally described as 20-something nonconformists. They are best known for wearing skinny jeans, oversized sweaters, retro denim jackets, and vintage accessories plucked straight from the local thrift store.
They tend to congregate in gentrifying urban spaces anchored by independent coffee shops, craft breweries, thriving indie art scenes, and progressive politics.
While most major Northeastern cities have an established hipster stronghold, the subculture has spent the last few years expanding into liberal pockets across the Heartland.
The Search Data Behind the Ranking
Despite acknowledging Williamsburg as the undeniable epicenter of the movement, BuzzFeed awarded Minnesota the top spot based on search engine metrics. Specifically, it came down to the sheer concentration of hipster-related queries originating from the state.
Minnesotans were routinely searching for terms like:
"hipster look"
"hipster girl"
"urban hipster"
Because Minnesota has roughly a third of New York’s total population, its search interest is far more concentrated. In other words, Minnesota boasts a higher per capita hipster density than New York.
Driven by Minneapolis's thriving art scene, bike-friendly culture, and neighborhoods like Uptown and Northeast, these rankings fly in the face of the long-held assumption that hipster subculture is purely a coastal phenomenon.
