You’ve been following these rankings for over a week now. You’ve pored over them. Examined them. Considered them. You’ve looked at a lot of license plates.
Now, you get to see the full list. All the regions, mashed together into one great nation of license plates excluding license plates other than those of states and the District of Columbia.
The blurbs are shorter than they’ve been for other posts, because, well, you read all those already. But if you haven’t read all those already, or you missed a few, you can get complete thoughts on each region’s plates here:
New England
The Mid-East States
The Southeast
The South
The Great Lakes
The Great Plains
The Mountain West
The West Coast
Now, what you’ve been waiting for:
NOTE: THESE RANKINGS ARE FROM 2019. SOME LICENSE PLATES HAVE CHANGED SINCE THEN. UPDATED RANKINGS WILL SOON BE AVAILABLE.
51. Oklahoma
There is nothing redeeming about this license plate.
50. Mississippi
Yuck. At least it has cool S’s.
49. Tennessee
So many things going on. So few of which are good.
48. Ohio
Ohio was hanging around for a bit thanks to its comedic value, but then it was noticed they put “SO MUCH TO DISCOVER” in larger text than what they used to commemorate the Underground Railroad.
47. Michigan
The ‘Pure Michigan’ marketing campaign has done every Midwesterner in. We are exhausted. Get that dumb M out of our collective faces.
46. Nevada
Possibly harsh, but this gets worse the longer you look at it.
45. Virginia
As has been said, despite the longevity of the campaign, few associate lovers with the state of Virginia. Also, of course those snobs have a dot-org web address.
44. Kansas
Kansas survived this long by going unnoticed. Really puts a person to sleep.
43. Maryland
How many registered vehicles do you suppose there are in the state of Maryland? One million? That’s one million missed opportunities.
42. Iowa
You’re not fooling anyone, Iowa. You had no business putting a cityscape on the vehicular representation of your state.
41. New Jersey
Nothing special. Unless the employment of the state nickname is an homage to the smell of compost. In which case this plate is hilarious and we are in the wrong here. I don’t even know if New Jersey smells bad. But boy, would sure be funny if they said that about themselves.
40. Arkansas
I’ll say this for Arkansas’s license plate. Today, we googled whether or not there are diamonds in Arkansas.
39. Massachusetts
At some point, we have to stop letting Massachusetts call themselves The Spirit of America. Abigail Adams isn’t coming back.
38. District of Columbia
And while we’re at it, we get it, District-of-Columbians. You don’t want to have to move five miles to combine your lobbying influence with that of voting for senators and representatives.
37. Alabama
We don’t know how problematic the “Heart of Dixie” thing in the bottom-right is, and we’d guess it depends on context/intent, but here, it’s unnecessary, and putting anything that hard to read on the plate detracts from what’s a very nice image.
36. Maine
You can’t just make up a name for yourself, Maine. And even if you could, you should try to do better than “Vacationland.”
35. Minnesota
It’s fine. No complaints. Nothing spectacular.
34. Connecticut
Similarly to Minnesota’s, this license plate exists.
33. Louisiana
All of it is good except for that unnecessarily edgy font.
32. Illinois
It’s all just too faint. Looming Lincoln is good, but make the other parts easier to see. And why is he next to Chicago and not Springfield? This confuses me.
31. Florida
A good plate. In fact, a very good plate. Held back by the need to put a tourism url across the top. You didn’t have to do it, Florida. This was your choice.
30. South Carolina
‘Twould be a glorious plate. The Palmetto Moon is a thing of beauty. But that quote belongs scribbled in a twelve-year-old’s assignment notebook.
29. Kentucky
Kentucky went all out on this. Almost. The impossibly lightly written “Bluegrass State” is where they come up short.
28. Montana
Whereas Kentucky went all out, Montana didn’t do enough.
27. Utah
“Life Elevated” could be replaced with so many better phrases. No one likes leaving Utah this low, but accountability is important.
26. Nebraska
From here on out, no major complaints with any plates (aside from the complaints about those security threads you know we loathe). All are actively good. Including that of Nebraska.
We like The Sower. We like the subtlety. A solid effort.
25. California
Good on California for not trying to do too much. And with a state like California, with so much going on and so much to represent, it’s hard to do much better than this.
24. Oregon
The fact that Oregon is hardly in this list’s top 25 shows just how powerful these power rankings are. We should all be proud of our fellow states.
23. Rhode Island
Rhode Island had to take some risks to get noticed. And those risks paid off. Fortune favors the bold.
22. Texas
Another good plate. Clean. Solid. Maybe could’ve made the state outline bigger, but maybe that would’ve looked bad? Hard to say for sure.
21. Missouri
You know what? Good for Missouri for making such a celebration out of their bicentennial. I hope we all celebrate it.
(And you know we love those sneaky bears).
20. New York
I’ll admit it. When I see this plate, I’m mildly intimidated.
19. Pennsylvania
Keystones don’t get enough love.
18. Georgia
Much like Texas’, this is clean, neat, and fits the state. Counties are fun, too.
17. New Hampshire
A very good plate. Kind of funny that they put “New” in a different font from “Hampshire,” though. Had they just stuck to the fundamentals, they might find themselves in a slightly better position here.
16. Washington
It’s a mighty plate. That’s the only way to describe it.
15. Indiana
When one is power ranking license plates, it’s always a little sad to say goodbye to Indiana. It’s just so whimsical. Did you notice they put the recycling logo in the bottom left? The only plate that’ll make you say, “Aww.”
14. Wisconsin
It’s not exactly simple, but it gives off that impression. Not as light-hearted as Indiana, but happy, content, and humble. May the same be said of all of us.
13. Arizona
Using what your state’s got is important, and Arizona does that well.
12. Delaware
But when your state doesn’t have much, you have to make do with simplicity, and Delaware’s is the standard for that.
11. Colorado
Iconic.
10. New Mexico
A true original.
9. Hawaii
A plate that leaves you full of happy peace.
8. West Virginia
It’s beyond just easy on the eyes. It’s like the plate is actively soothing one’s soul. Looks good both fresh and beat up, too.
7. North Carolina
We’ve gotten a lot of (editor’s note: a little) feedback on this series, and the one thing we were called out for that I agree with is that I made a mistake in the Southeast by leaving North Carolina behind Georgia. What a great plate. Never change, North Carolina.
6. South Dakota
You could not ask for more out of South Dakota with this plate. Even I, the one making this list, am somewhat disbelieving it didn’t crack the top five.
5. Idaho
But look what South Dakota had to contend with. Potatoes. And famous ones, at that.
4. Vermont
A titan in the industry.
3. Alaska
No other state’s plate fits the state as well as Alaska’s fits it.
I think.
Never been there.
2. North Dakota
A hearty congratulations to our runner-up. North Dakota gave this everything it had, and in the process it bestowed an incredible license plate upon the nation. It’s hard to imagine what they could do to climb that final rung, but the beauty of license plates is that you never know what innovation is lurking.
1. Wyoming
And, as you probably guessed, Wyoming is our champion. Words can’t do it justice, so I’ll stop with the words.
***
If you’re interested in looking at this in bracket form, or even filling out this bracket on your own to tell us what you think, here you are:
Nevada License Plate Image taken from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
California License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s labeled as Public Domain.
Oregon License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to EvanA123.
Washington License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to Pickn528.
Hawaii License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s labeled as Public Domain.
Alaska License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to Yorkist Propaganda.
Ohio License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to Mister Upstate.
Michigan License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s labeled Public Domain.
Minnesota License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to www.theus50.com.
Illinois License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to Zcarstvnz.
Indiana License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to kjjims.
Wisconsin License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to Rouge Falconer.
Oklahoma License Plate Image taken from KOCO News.
Kansas License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s labeled Public Domain.
Iowa License Plate Image taken from The Daily Iowan.
Nebraska License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to Ryansmith64.
Missouri License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to The State Historical Society of Missouri.
South Dakota License Plate Image taken from South Dakota State News.
North Dakota License Plate Image taken from the North Dakota Department of Transportation.
Maryland License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s labeled Public Domain.
New Jersey License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to Thankful to be me 515.
Washington, D.C. License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s labeled Public Domain.
New York License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to Rouge Furby.
Pennsylvania License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s labeled Public Domain.
Delaware License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s labeled Public Domain.
West Virginia License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to Lieutenant Ramathorn.
Montana License Plate Image taken from The Billings Gazette.
Utah License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to Pickn528.
Arizona License Plate Image taken from ABC15 Arizona.
Colorado License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to Shermanator3.
New Mexico License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to Moonsdebut.
Idaho License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to Pickn528.
Wyoming License Plate Image taken from the Wyoming Department of Transportation.
Massachusetts License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it is labeled Public Domain.
Maine License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it is credited to Dickelbers.
Connecticut License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it is credited to Jaycarlcooper.
Rhode Island License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it is credited to Ericci8996.
New Hampshire License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it is credited to Stripey the crab.
Vermont License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it is credited to Jaycarlcooper.
Tennessee License Plate Image taken from Google Images, which seemed to be getting it indirectly from ebay.
Virginia License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s labeled as Public Domain.
Florida License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s labeled as Public Domain.
South Carolina License Plate Image taken from ABC News 4.
Kentucky License Plate Image taken from WLKY Louisville.
North Carolina License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s labeled as Public Domain.
Georgia License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to Dickelbers.
Mississippi License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s labeled as Public Domain.
Arkansas License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s credited to EvanA123.
Alabama License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s labeled as Fair Use.
Louisiana License Plate Image taken from Brandywine General Store, where by the looks of it, they’re selling lots of license plates. Yes, we chose this one because it has the letters “STU” on it.
Texas License Plate Image taken from Wikipedia, where it’s labeled as Public Domain.
