US States With the Highest Share of Taxes From Selective Sales

51 US states ranked by share of taxes from selective sales, from highest to lowest. First are Nevada (20.9), Rhode Island (17.6) and West Virginia (17.3). The middle one of the 51 has 11.2.

What this measures

The percentage from taxes on particular things, not on sales in general: gasoline and diesel, tobacco, alcohol, insurance, utilities and entertainment. The money from these taxes shrinks as people do less of the thing being taxed. Source: Census government finances.

For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.

Every state

Rank	State	% of all taxes
1	Nevada	20.9
2	Rhode Island	17.6
3	West Virginia	17.3
4	Vermont	16.7
5	Alabama	15.8
6	Indiana	15.4
7	Kentucky	14.6
8	Louisiana	14.5
9	Hawaii	14.2
10	Montana	14.2
11	Virginia	13.9
12	Tennessee	13.9
13	Illinois	13.8
14	Pennsylvania	13.8
15	Texas	13.4
16	Maryland	13.3
17	Ohio	13.2
18	Florida	12.6
19	Washington	12.4
20	New Hampshire	12.3
21	South Dakota	12.3
22	Mississippi	12.3
23	Arkansas	12.3
24	Oregon	11.9
25	Minnesota	11.3
26	North Carolina	11.2
27	South Carolina	10.7
28	Colorado	10.2
29	Michigan	10.1
30	Alaska	9.97
31	Oklahoma	9.61
32	Idaho	9.31
33	Iowa	9.2
34	Arizona	9.08
35	Utah	9.08
36	Wisconsin	8.56
37	Missouri	8.55
38	Delaware	8.44
39	Maine	8.3
40	Connecticut	8.23
41	Kansas	8.11
42	California	7.94
43	North Dakota	7.7
44	New Mexico	7.32
45	Georgia	7.2
46	New York	6.78
47	New Jersey	6.2
48	Nebraska	5.66
49	Massachusetts	5.41
50	Wyoming	5.31
51	District of Columbia	4.44

More on share of taxes from selective sales

A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.