2022’s Best States for Wanna-Be Pioneer Women

Feeling like getting away from it all? Dropping off the grid, growing your own crops, herding your cattle, heating your bathwater on the stove?   This pioneering spirit, made recently popular by “The Pioneer Woman” star Ree Drummond, has created an aspirational idea of the simple life.  

But simplifying your lifestyle, cutting out the noise, and getting back to basics is not a new concept. It was how most people lived, out of necessity, for generations. And if today, it's something you long to recapture, where in America could you live like a modern-day pioneer?  A 21st Century Laura Ingalls Wilder?

To find out, Lawn Love ranked 2022’s Best States for Pioneer Women by comparing the 50 states based on their suitability to a “Little House on the Prairie” lifestyle.

They looked at eight different factors indicating a state’s friendliness toward farming (especially for women) and surviving off the grid.

Check out the 5 best (and 5 worst) states for the simple life below, followed by key insights from their report.

Key Insights

• Alone in the Lone Star State: If you dream of being a cowgirl (and isolating yourself from society), it doesn’t get better than Texas, Lawn Love's No. 1 Best State for Pioneer Women. Texas leads in renewable energy use. Farming and ranching promise to be a breeze here, too. Texas ranks an impressive fourth in this metric but loses points in the Female Farmer-Friendliness category for employing fewer women at its farms than in nearly half of the other states.
   
• Pioneer for a Day in Utah: You’d think the only state to officially celebrate Pioneer Day would fare well, but the Beehive State finished at a disappointing 44th place.
  Objectively speaking, Utah is not an ideal state for wannabe pioneer women. It ranked below average in nearly every metric except for solar energy use at No. 12.
   
• Rusty States: Think twice before literally putting down roots in Rust Belt states like New York (No. 43), Indiana (No. 49), and Pennsylvania (No. 50). These states make up the super majority of our bottom 10.  Turns out this region is a bit rusty when it comes to welcoming pioneer women, too. 

A full ranking and analysis are available here.