Researchers at the University of Kansas say the terrain makes Illinois is the second-flattest state in the country, behind a very surprising frontrunner.
The flattest state? Florida.
That’s according to University of Kansas geographer, and president of the American Geographical Society, Jerome Dobson. His research compared how flat people think states are, versus how flat the states actually are.
The team determined how flat states are by breaking each state up into small sections and analyzing the elevation in those sections.
One-third of the people Dobson initially surveyed said they thought Kansas was the flattest state. But Dobson’s team found low-lying coastal plains make Florida the flattest in the land.
“I know that the flattest place I’ve ever seen is central Illinois,” Dobson told the Chicago Tribune.
His team found Illinois was not only flatter than Kansas, but also flatter than North Dakota, Louisiana and Minnesota.
Iowa ranked as the 18th flattest state, and 64% of the state is not flat.
Kansas ranked seventh-flattest in the study. The least flat state was West Virginia.
