Which states search for astrology the most?

Google Trends data for Oct 1, 2025 – Sep 30, 2026 puts California, D.C. and Nevada at the top of the index, followed by New York, Arizona, New Mexico and Hawaii. Those seven stay in the top 11 whichever of the eight terms is dropped. D.C. is a city, so it is not like-for-like with the states.

Which states search for astrology the least?

South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska and West Virginia have the lowest share of astrology searches in the index, and Idaho, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana and Indiana complete the bottom 10. The bottom of the table is the most stable part: those positions move by 5 places or fewer when any one term is dropped.

Does this show which states believe in astrology?

No. Google Trends measures what share of a state's Google searches were for a term, scaled so the top state reads 100. It counts neither searches nor people, and it says nothing about belief or behavior. The index ranks search share only.

Why isn't Wyoming ranked?

A short-lived spike made its numbers unreliable. Wyoming's weekly "astrology" searches jumped from about 8–16 to 82–100 on the Trends scale for about five weeks (Apr 19 – May 23, 2026) and then fell back, which points to a sampling or non-human artifact. Included as is, it would have topped the index, so it is listed as not ranked.

How much do searches jump during Mercury retrograde?

Across the last six retrogrades, weekly US searches for "Mercury retrograde" peaked at 3.6× to 11.1× their normal level and started climbing one to two weeks before each start date. For Oct 24 – Nov 13, 2026, the forecast is a peak week roughly 4 to 7 times normal; the real figures replace it after Nov 16, 2026.

Which States Search the Stars? The 2026 Astrology Search Index

Google Trends data for 8 astrology terms across 49 states and D.C., Oct 2025–Sep 2026: the top 10, the bottom 10, each state's standout search and Mercury retrograde spikes.

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The direct answer: Google Trends data for Oct 1, 2025 – Sep 30, 2026 puts California, D.C. and Nevada at the top of AskSoma's index of eight astrology search terms, and South Dakota, North Dakota and Iowa at the bottom. It measures search share, not belief.

What these numbers are

Relative search share: the fraction of all Google searches in a state that were for each term, scaled so the top state reads 100. It is not a count of searches, people or believers.
Read positions as bands. A second sample of the same data moved states about 3 places on average, so every state's likely range is shown next to its position.
D.C.† is a city, not a state. Wyoming is not ranked this year (a data anomaly). Kansas⚑ is ranked but flagged.

Key findings

A stable top group. California, D.C.†, Nevada, New York, Arizona, New Mexico and Hawaii make up the top seven, and 8 of the top 10 were also in the top 10 for the 12 months before (year-on-year rank correlation 0.93).
Search data shows the lowest astrology search shares mostly in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest: South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, West Virginia, Idaho, Minnesota and Wisconsin hold the bottom eight places, and all eight were in the bottom 15 the year before.
Each state leans on its own words. New Jersey leads the US for "horoscope" searches, Louisiana for "zodiac signs" (top two both years), D.C.† for "birth chart", "rising sign", "Saturn return" and "Mercury retrograde", Hawaii for "zodiac compatibility", and Oregon for "tarot" in both years.
Mercury retrograde makes US searches jump. Across the last six retrogrades, weekly national interest in "Mercury retrograde" peaked at 3.6× to 11.1× its normal level, and started climbing one to two weeks before each start date.
A separate "second layer" index (Vedic and sidereal astrology searches) has its own map, led by California, D.C.†, Washington, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Virginia. It is never merged into the core index.

The top 10

Band	State	Index	Likely range	Last year	Standout search
Top three	California	73.0	1–3	4	"astrology" (top 3)
Top three	District of Columbia †	71.7	1–4	9	"birth chart" (top 3)
Top three	Nevada	67.6	2–4	1	"zodiac compatibility" (top 3)
Top seven	New York	63.7	3–7	6	"birth chart" (top 3)
Top seven	Arizona	63.3	3–7	8	"zodiac signs" (top 3)
Top seven	New Mexico	62.3	4–7	2	"horoscope" (top 3)
Top seven	Hawaii	55.4	5–11	3	"zodiac compatibility" (top 3)
Places 8–10 (soft)	New Jersey	52.8	6–19	11	"horoscope" (top 3)
Places 8–10 (soft)	Maryland	51.8	7–14	14	"birth chart" (top 10)
Places 8–10 (soft)	Georgia	50.7	9–19	7	"zodiac signs" (top 10)

No state in the top seven drops below 11th when any one of the eight terms is dropped. Places 8–10 are soft: New Jersey, Maryland and Georgia could each sit anywhere across 8 or more places. Last year's top 10 was Nevada, New Mexico, Hawaii, California, Rhode Island, New York, Georgia, Arizona, D.C.† and Vermont.

† D.C. is a city, not a state. City search shares usually run higher for lifestyle topics, so D.C. is not like-for-like with the states.

The bottom 10

Position	State	Index	Likely range	Last year	Standout search
41	Indiana	24.0	40–43	37	"zodiac signs" (top 20)
42	Montana	22.2	38–42	40	"Saturn return" (top 20)
43	Wisconsin	19.6	43–45	43	"zodiac signs" (around the middle)
44	Minnesota	18.8	41–46	42	"rising sign" (around the middle)
45	Idaho	17.3	42–46	45	"zodiac compatibility" (top 20)
46	West Virginia	16.7	44–47	36	"birth chart" (around the middle)
47	Nebraska	14.8	44–47	48	"zodiac signs" (around the middle)
48	Iowa	11.4	48–49	49	"rising sign" (around the middle)
49	North Dakota	11.2	48–50	47	"zodiac signs" (around the middle)
50	South Dakota	8.9	49–50	50	"rising sign" (around the middle)

The bottom of the table is the most stable part: these positions move by 5 places or fewer when any one term is dropped. Every bottom-10 state still has a standout search where it sits higher.

Find your state: the full table

Every state and D.C., with each one's anchor link (for example /astrology-search-index#new-mexico). "Index" is the weighted 0–100 score. "Likely range" is the highest and lowest position the state gets when each of the eight terms is dropped in turn, so read positions inside that range as equal. "Last year" is the position on the same index for Oct 1, 2024 – Sep 30, 2025. "Standout search" is the state's best-placed term.

Position	State	Index	Band	Likely range	Last year	Standout search
1	California	73.0	Top three	1–3	4	"astrology" (top 3)
2	District of Columbia †	71.7	Top three	1–4	9	"birth chart" (top 3)
3	Nevada	67.6	Top three	2–4	1	"zodiac compatibility" (top 3)
4	New York	63.7	Top 10	3–7	6	"birth chart" (top 3)
5	Arizona	63.3	Top 10	3–7	8	"zodiac signs" (top 3)
6	New Mexico	62.3	Top 10	4–7	2	"horoscope" (top 3)
7	Hawaii	55.4	Top 10	5–11	3	"zodiac compatibility" (top 3)
8	New Jersey	52.8	Top 10	6–19	11	"horoscope" (top 3)
9	Maryland	51.8	Top 10	7–14	14	"birth chart" (top 10)
10	Georgia	50.7	Top 10	9–19	7	"zodiac signs" (top 10)
11	Oregon	49.3	Top half	8–21	12	"astrology" (top 3)
12	Colorado	47.0	Top half	12–18	15	"Saturn return" (top 10)
13	Louisiana	46.9	Top half	10–27	16	"zodiac signs" (top 3)
14	Vermont	46.9	Top half	10–19	10	"Saturn return" (top 3)
15	Illinois	46.5	Top half	12–20	13	"Saturn return" (top 10)
16	Washington	45.8	Top half	11–25	20	"astrology" (top 10)
17	Florida	45.1	Top half	14–18	23	"birth chart" (top 10)
18	Massachusetts	42.7	Top half	12–26	19	"horoscope" (top 10)
19	Texas	42.6	Top half	14–25	18	"zodiac compatibility" (top 10)
20	Delaware	42.5	Top half	16–25	22	"Mercury retrograde" (top 10)
21	Michigan	42.4	Top half	17–24	25	"horoscope" (top 10)
22	Rhode Island	42.0	Top half	15–28	5	"Mercury retrograde" (top 10)
23	Maine	41.5	Top half	15–28	24	"horoscope" (top 10)
24	Alaska	40.8	Top half	21–26	17	"zodiac compatibility" (top 10)
25	Connecticut	40.5	Top half	17–32	21	"horoscope" (top 10)
26	Pennsylvania	38.0	Bottom half	24–29	27	"horoscope" (top 20)
27	North Carolina	37.4	Bottom half	25–30	35	"zodiac signs" (top 20)
28	Virginia	37.2	Bottom half	23–29	29	"Saturn return" (top 20)
29	Tennessee	32.7	Bottom half	29–35	30	"birth chart" (top 20)
30	Kansas ⚑	32.5	Bottom half	24–41	46	"Saturn return" (top 20)
31	Ohio	32.3	Bottom half	29–35	33	"horoscope" (top 20)
32	Utah	31.8	Bottom half	22–37	44	"rising sign" (top 10)
33	New Hampshire	31.8	Bottom half	28–37	26	"horoscope" (top 20)
34	Mississippi	30.6	Bottom half	28–40	31	"zodiac signs" (top 3)
35	Arkansas	30.6	Bottom half	30–36	41	"zodiac compatibility" (top 10)
36	Oklahoma	28.5	Bottom half	33–37	28	"rising sign" (top 20)
37	Missouri	27.4	Bottom half	34–39	34	"zodiac signs" (around the middle)
38	Alabama	26.5	Bottom half	34–43	38	"zodiac signs" (top 10)
39	South Carolina	26.5	Bottom half	35–39	32	"zodiac signs" (top 20)
40	Kentucky	25.8	Bottom half	37–40	39	"zodiac compatibility" (around the middle)
41	Indiana	24.0	Bottom 10	40–43	37	"zodiac signs" (top 20)
42	Montana	22.2	Bottom 10	38–42	40	"Saturn return" (top 20)
43	Wisconsin	19.6	Bottom 10	43–45	43	"zodiac signs" (around the middle)
44	Minnesota	18.8	Bottom 10	41–46	42	"rising sign" (around the middle)
45	Idaho	17.3	Bottom 10	42–46	45	"zodiac compatibility" (top 20)
46	West Virginia	16.7	Bottom 10	44–47	36	"birth chart" (around the middle)
47	Nebraska	14.8	Bottom 10	44–47	48	"zodiac signs" (around the middle)
48	Iowa	11.4	Bottom 10	48–49	49	"rising sign" (around the middle)
49	North Dakota	11.2	Bottom 10	48–50	47	"zodiac signs" (around the middle)
50	South Dakota	8.9	Bottom 10	49–50	50	"rising sign" (around the middle)
—	Wyoming	not ranked	Not ranked: data anomaly	—	—	see the Wyoming note

† D.C. is a city, not a state. City search shares usually run higher for lifestyle topics, so D.C. is not like-for-like with the states.

⚑ Kansas is ranked but flagged. Its weekly "astrology" searches ran at 2 to 7 times their late-2025 level from mid-February to July 2026, and it read near the top on "astrology", "vedic astrology" and tarot after sitting 46th on last year's core index. A likely cause is a known location artifact: US searches with no precise location get assigned to the geographic center of the country, which is in Kansas. Removing Kansas moves no other state by more than 1 place. Kansas is quoted on its best non-flagged term and left out of the per-term, second-layer and tarot lists.

Wyoming is not ranked this year. Its weekly "astrology" searches ran at about 8–16 on the Trends scale, jumped to 82–100 for about five weeks (Apr 19 – May 23, 2026), then fell back. That left Wyoming at 100 on seven of eleven terms, while the next state read between 27 and 83. A short spike like that points to a sampling or non-human artifact, not a real change in interest. On the prior year's numbers Wyoming sat 36th of 51.

What each state searches

Google Trends data shows each state leaning on its own words. These are raw Trends scores for Oct 1, 2025 – Sep 30, 2026 (the top state reads 100). "Top three both years" lists the states in the top three for that term (ties included) in both 12-month windows.

Search term	Highest this year (Trends score)	Lowest	Top three both years
"horoscope"	New Jersey 100, New York 94, New Mexico 93, Connecticut 91, Maine 88	Idaho 45, Nebraska 45, Utah 46	New Jersey, New Mexico
"zodiac signs"	Louisiana 100, Arizona 97, Mississippi 92, Nevada 91, New Mexico 91	Massachusetts 63, Minnesota 63, New Hampshire 63	Louisiana
"birth chart"*	D.C.† 69, New York 68, California 63, Nevada 62, Georgia 58	South Dakota 26, North Dakota 28, Iowa 32	New York, California
"astrology"*	California 34, Oregon 32, Washington 31, New York 30	Mississippi 13, South Dakota 13, North Dakota 14	Oregon, Washington
"Mercury retrograde"	D.C.† 100, California 88, Hawaii 86, Rhode Island 82, Nevada 79	Mississippi 38, North Dakota 40, South Dakota 40	Hawaii
"zodiac compatibility"	Hawaii 100, Nevada 90, Louisiana 78, California 78, Texas 75	North Dakota 43, Iowa 47, South Dakota 49	Hawaii, Nevada, Louisiana
"rising sign"*	D.C.† 82, Hawaii 69, Oregon 67, California 67, Nevada 66	North Dakota 37, West Virginia 42, Indiana 44	Hawaii, D.C.†
"Saturn return"*	D.C.† 83, Oregon 47, Vermont 46, New York 43, Illinois 42	Mississippi 15, West Virginia 15, Alabama 17	D.C.†, Oregon

* Wyoming read 100 on these terms and is not ranked, so the other states sit lower on the 0–100 scale. Kansas⚑ is left out of the "astrology" row.

New Jersey searches "horoscope" at the highest relative rate in the country, ahead of New York and New Mexico.
Louisiana leads the US for "zodiac signs" searches, and was in the top two the year before as well.
D.C.† leads for "Saturn return" (the late-20s astrology milestone) by a wide margin.

Climbers and fallers that hold up

Two independent 12-month maps, each normalised on its own, compared by position. A move only counts when last year's position falls outside this year's likely range.

Moved up

D.C.†: 9 → 2 (up 7 places; likely range 1–4)
North Carolina: 35 → 27 (up 8 places; likely range 25–30)
Florida: 23 → 17 (up 6 places; likely range 14–18)

Moved down

Rhode Island: 5 → 22 (down 17 places; likely range 15–28)
West Virginia: 36 → 46 (down 10 places; likely range 44–47)
Oklahoma: 28 → 36 (down 8 places; likely range 33–37)
Alaska: 17 → 24 (down 7 places; likely range 21–26)
South Carolina: 32 → 39 (down 7 places; likely range 35–39)
New Hampshire: 26 → 33 (down 7 places; likely range 28–37)

Rhode Island is a small state with noisier figures; it is still among the top five for "Mercury retrograde" and for tarot searches.

Utah (44 → 32) moved further, but its likely range is wide (22–37), so the move is soft. Kansas⚑ moved most, but its reading is flagged. Maryland and New Jersey moved up inside their likely ranges, which does not count.

The national story is stability, not movement: the year-on-year rank correlation is 0.93.

Mercury retrograde, Oct 24 – Nov 13, 2026: forecast

Mercury stations retrograde on Oct 24 and turns direct on Nov 13, 2026. This section is a forecast: search data for that window does not exist yet. We will re-pull Google Trends on Nov 16, 2026 and update this page in place with the real figures.

Mercury retrograde	Peak week (Trends score)	Peak vs normal	Average retrograde week vs normal
Nov 26 – Dec 15, 2024	32	3.6×	2.9×
Mar 15 – Apr 7, 2025	36	4.0×	3.2×
Jul 18 – Aug 11, 2025	65	7.2×	6.2×
Nov 9 – Nov 29, 2025	43	4.8×	3.7×
Feb 26 – Mar 20, 2026	55	6.1×	4.6×
Jun 29 – Jul 23, 2026	100	11.1×	6.9×

"Normal" is the median of the non-retrograde weeks, 9 on the Trends scale (national weekly searches for "Mercury retrograde", Oct 2024 – Sep 2026). In 2025, weekly interest doubled (8 → 17) by the week of Oct 19, three weeks before the Nov 9 station.

Forecast for Oct 24 – Nov 13, 2026: a peak week of roughly 4 to 7 times the normal level, with interest starting to rise around Oct 11–17. The 11-fold peak in July 2026 is the outlier. This is a range, not a prediction of an exact number.

States to watch: D.C.†, Hawaii, California and Colorado. Search data shows all four in the top 10 for "Mercury retrograde" in each of the last three retrogrades (Nov 2025, Mar 2026, Jul 2026), and D.C.† and Hawaii in the top four every time. The lowest across all three: Arkansas, Montana, West Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi and Iowa.

Mercury retrograde dates, times and shadow periods · all three 2027 retrogrades in the 2027 astrology calendar

The second layer: Vedic and sidereal searches

A separate index built from searches for "vedic astrology" (75%) and "sidereal astrology" (25%). It shows where searches go past the Western Sun sign. It is never merged into the core index above.

Search data shows California, D.C.†, Washington, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Virginia, Georgia, Maryland and Utah in its top 10, with California and D.C.† also the top two the year before. The lowest five: New Hampshire, Montana, Maine, West Virginia and South Dakota.

These terms have low search volume and "sidereal astrology" is sparse, so this map moves more year to year (rank correlation 0.68). Kansas⚑ is left out and the list renumbered. The index measures what is searched, not who is searching.

How Vedic and Western astrology differ

Tarot, reported separately

Tarot is a different practice, so it is reported on its own and kept out of the astrology index. Oregon leads tarot searches in both years, with New Mexico second both times.

The top-five band: Oregon, New Mexico, Vermont, Rhode Island and Maine. The lowest five: South Dakota, South Carolina, Nebraska, North Dakota and Mississippi. Wyoming read 100 on tarot, so the other states sit on a compressed scale with many ties; read the band, not the order. Kansas⚑ is left out. Year-on-year rank correlation: 0.83.

Method and limits

Source: Google Trends interest by sub-region (49 states and D.C.) for Oct 1, 2025 – Sep 30, 2026, pulled one term at a time so each term is scaled 0–100 on its own. The comparison year is Oct 1, 2024 – Sep 30, 2025, built the same way.

For each term, the 50 ranked places are min–max normalised to 0–100. The core index is the weighted mean of the eight core terms below. Where a state is below Google's reporting threshold on a term, that term is dropped for the state and the other weights are rescaled (this only affects South Dakota on "Saturn return").

Broad entry terms carry 80% of the weight. Niche terms carry less because their state data is thinner and noisier. "Zodiac compatibility" is used instead of bare "compatibility", and "sidereal astrology" instead of bare "sidereal", because the bare words are mostly searches about other things.

The likely range is the highest and lowest position a state gets when each core term is dropped in turn. To measure sampling noise, "horoscope" was pulled twice for near-identical windows: values moved 2.0 points per state on average (at most 9), and positions moved 2.9 places on average (at most 15).

Search term	Role	Weight
"horoscope"	core index	20%
"zodiac signs"	core index	15%
"birth chart"	core index	15%
"astrology"	core index	15%
"Mercury retrograde"	core index	15%
"zodiac compatibility"	core index	10%
"rising sign"	core index	5%
"Saturn return"	core index	5%
"tarot"	reported separately	—
"vedic astrology"	second-layer index	75%
"sidereal astrology"	second-layer index	25%

What this index can NOT tell you

It is relative search share. Small states are not penalised for population, but their figures are noisier.
It says nothing about belief or behavior. "California has the highest relative search interest in 'astrology'" is what the data supports; claims about how much people believe are not.
It explains nothing about groups of people. No reading of any map on this page by ethnicity, religion or politics is offered or supported.
Positions inside a state's likely range are equal for practical purposes, and a move smaller than that range is noise.
The figures are frozen at Sep 30, 2026 and will not be re-pulled for this edition, because a fresh sample would move mid-table positions by about three places.

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Free to use under CC BY 4.0. If you publish it, please credit AskSoma and link to this page.

Source: AskSoma State Astrology Search Index 2026, from Google Trends data, Oct 1, 2025 – Sep 30, 2026 (https://asksoma.ai/astrology-search-index).

Index built from Google Trends relative search interest for eight Western-astrology terms, Oct 1, 2025 – Sep 30, 2026, weighted and normalised across 49 states and D.C. Trends measures search share, not beliefs or behavior.

Frequently asked questions

Which states search for astrology the most?: Google Trends data for Oct 1, 2025 – Sep 30, 2026 puts California, D.C. and Nevada at the top of the index, followed by New York, Arizona, New Mexico and Hawaii. Those seven stay in the top 11 whichever of the eight terms is dropped. D.C. is a city, so it is not like-for-like with the states.
Which states search for astrology the least?: South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska and West Virginia have the lowest share of astrology searches in the index, and Idaho, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana and Indiana complete the bottom 10. The bottom of the table is the most stable part: those positions move by 5 places or fewer when any one term is dropped.
Does this show which states believe in astrology?: No. Google Trends measures what share of a state's Google searches were for a term, scaled so the top state reads 100. It counts neither searches nor people, and it says nothing about belief or behavior. The index ranks search share only.
Why isn't Wyoming ranked?: A short-lived spike made its numbers unreliable. Wyoming's weekly "astrology" searches jumped from about 8–16 to 82–100 on the Trends scale for about five weeks (Apr 19 – May 23, 2026) and then fell back, which points to a sampling or non-human artifact. Included as is, it would have topped the index, so it is listed as not ranked.
How much do searches jump during Mercury retrograde?: Across the last six retrogrades, weekly US searches for "Mercury retrograde" peaked at 3.6× to 11.1× their normal level and started climbing one to two weeks before each start date. For Oct 24 – Nov 13, 2026, the forecast is a peak week roughly 4 to 7 times normal; the real figures replace it after Nov 16, 2026.

Your state's searches are one thing; your chart is another. The birth chart calculator shows your Sun, Moon and rising sign, free.

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Update log

Oct 2, 2026: First edition. Data window Oct 1, 2025 – Sep 30, 2026, frozen.
Planned: Nov 16, 2026: Mercury retrograde (Oct 24 – Nov 13) results replace the forecast in that section.

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About the author

Written by Savan Vyas, founder of AskSoma.

The astrology is not written from memory: every chart position, dasha period and panchang timing AskSoma shows is computed with the Swiss Ephemeris on the Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) ayanamsa. How we calculate.