united states plates follow a pretty general pattern - each state's stanard-issue plate will be the most common, but pretty much all states offer additional specialty or otherwise vanity plates, with different designs, for certain causes or certain groups of people.

most commonly, specialty plates will exist for veterans, specific groups of workers, state colleges, wildlife preservation, or certain causes. some states will also offer just general vanity plates - kansas in particular is a good example!

some states have waaay more options for specialty plates than others, with a much larger variety of causes or interests. the effort put into these plates also differs wildly from state to state! for example, a lot of states will simply put something like a slogan and an icon on their base plate. others, though, will actually go the whole 9 yards with specially-made designs and all!

for example, compare arizona and maryland's standard-issue plates to their environmental-related plates.

like jesus... what a fucking SNOOZEFEST!

and like ok. here's where i need to be real. i DO GET it. Like i get that a huge part of the reason why some strates have very boring plates is for readability's sake. I GET IT.

however consider that this is my land of fun and whimsy and i don't care. because FIRST OF ALL you can BE READABLE WHILE STILL BEING FUN AND WHIMSICAL!!! but also second of all i just don't give a shit i want to see fun things. if you're not having plates like the tennessee agriculture plate i don't care!!

i mean god damn... get some WHIMSY IN YOUR LIFE. get some FUN FONTS and COOL DESIGNS with LOVELY COLORS. get SILLY with it man!!

so, that's some of my main criteria for these ratings. how many specialty plates are there? for what causes? how different are the specialty or vanity plates from the standard issue plates? from each other? how are the designs, on their own? and - for standard issue plates - how recognizable are they?

with that, each state gets its own ranking. however! overall top 3 and bottom 3 states?

...Yea get back to me on this one in a bit