Specifically, residents of the Northeast (led by New York) said they wear masks at a significantly higher rate than most of the country.
In New York, 67% say they wear a mask at all times when they leave their home. That’s the highest percentage for any state for which at least 75 respondents were surveyed.
New York and the surrounding areas were the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic a few months ago, so it should come as no surprise that there is a clear movement to stop any recurrence of that.
The only other state in the country where more than 60% of residents said they always wore masks was California (64%). The Pacific division (which is primarily made up of California) has the most masked audience (58%) outside the Northeast. That’s primarily a California phenomenon, as less than 50% said they wore masks in the other states (Oregon and Washington) of the Pacific division for which we have a sample of at least 75.
As a general rule, other parts of the country do not adhere to the use of masks like the Northeast. The central part of the country in particular seems adverse to the use of masks.
Less than 50% of Midwest residents (East and West North Central) say they always wear a mask outside the home. The use of masks at all times when leaving the house at 34% is quite limited in the West North Central division.
The other two areas where mask use is significantly smaller than average are the mountain divide in the west and the south central east in the south. Less than 40% in any division told Ipsos that they always put on a mask when they were away from home.
Finally, the other divisions of the South (South Atlantic and West South Central) have an average use of masks. This includes Florida and Texas, which are within the national percentage margin of error in terms of wearing a mask in public.
These sounding data when combined with current transmission rates are generally consistent with the growing scientific consensus that the use of masks decreases the spread of Covid-19. We are dealing with small samples for many states in the poll and there are many potential confounding variables, so I don’t want to dwell too much on this.
States where the reproduction rate is greater than 1 have an average of 42% who say they always wear a mask when they leave the house. States where the reproduction rate is less than 1 have an average of 51% who say they always wear masks when they leave home.
It’s potentially another small indication that the skins help in the fight to prevent Covid-19 from spreading.
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