This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utahns, you once again have proved your pop culture might and in the process befuddled national reporters.
Our friends at The Washington Post's Wonkblog decided to use Google Trends to see which state's residents were the more "Star Wars" crazy during the past week. Utah won by a landslide.
Google's search volume index always gives the top location a score of 100 and then ranks every other place by comparison. California came in second — with only an 80, meaning that there were five Utahns searching "Star Wars" for every four Californians. Oregon came in last with a 46.
To test just how deep Utah's "Star Wars" dominance went, the blog analyzed Luke Skywalker searches. Utah came in first. The hated Jar Jar Binks? Yep, Utah's at the top. How about Vader? Uh ... yeah. And then there is Kylo Ren, whom I assume is a new "Star Wars" character (I'm so spoiler adverse, I have no idea who this is supposed to be), even here Utah kept its spot at the top of the list. Utahns are even No. 1 for searching "The Force" and the "Dark Side."
The writer of the Post item is baffled by why Utah of all places would be gaga over George Lucas' creation.
While I have no definitive answer, I would point out that the Salt Lake Comic Con broke the Guinness world record for the largest gathering of comic book characters this year. And Utah likely has the highest per capita devotees to Disney of anywhere on the planet (Disney refuses to cough up the hard numbers), and "Star Wars" is now a Disney product. This is a state that loves a wholesome adventure and a pure good-versus-evil battle. It also probably doesn't hurt that Utah has more kids per capita than any other state.
We asked Utahns to share with us the story of their first "Star Wars" experience and we got some great responses, check them out.