New Study Presents a State-by-State Look at Learning Styles

Why do some people absorb new information like a sponge while others labor for hours over a textbook? According to a study by Preply, the answer lies in their learning style. The team set out to map which styles dominate across the United States. Preply emphasizes the importance of its study by citing research showing that more than half of Americans spend under two hours a day studying, with teenagers reporting feeling distracted. At the same time, the majority of Americans believe that different learning styles exist. To identify which styles are most common and where, Preply analyzed a year of Google Trends data across 50 states to map the dominant learning style in each.

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A Nation of Social Learners

The study’s standout finding is that 40% of Americans are social learners, making it the single most common learning style in the country. Social learners take in information through interaction and conversation. According to the map, 20 states favor the study-buddy approach, including Connecticut and New York.

Visual learning came in second place. These learners thrive on aids like flowcharts, maps, doodles, and color-coded notes. Preply found that visual learners are concentrated in California, Florida, and Washington. Together, social and visual learners account for more than 70% of Americans.

The Less Common Learning Styles

The remaining six styles in Preply’s study, verbal, vicarious, kinesthetic, logical, auditory, and intrapersonal, are much less prevalent, making up just 34% of preferences combined. Verbal and vicarious learning tie as the third most popular style, but together account for only about 8%. The map reveals some notable patterns. While the West skews heavily toward visual learners, the eastern half of the country shows more variance. Massachusetts and Vermont residents lean toward verbal learning, while Connecticut and New Yorkers favor social learning.

A few individual states stand out as outliers. Auditory learning, which is learning through hearing information, leads in only two states: Mississippi and Indiana. West Virginia is the only state in the country that favors intrapersonal, solitary learning. This is the least preferred learning style nationwide.

What We Can Learn from These Findings

Preply began their study with a seed list of widely recognized learning styles drawn from educational resources, then measured popularity using Google Trends data from 12 months across 50 states. Where multiple styles ranked equally in a state, the team treated them as equally popular. The point Preply drew from this data is the recognition that how you learn is a useful step toward more effective studying, particularly in a country where study time is short and distractions are plentiful.

What emerges from the team’s map is a portrait of a country that isn’t uniform. No single learning style dominates everywhere, and neighboring states can be quite different from one another. This study serves as a reminder that study habits are shaped by geography, culture, and personal preference. The Preply study is another in a long line of ideas about how people learn, drawing on theories from Aristotle to Howard Gardner, to Neil Fleming.