Strongest States in the USA

Turns out that America’s strongest state is Texas.

At least that’s what is shown by the data below, compiled based on the last five years of powerlifting data.

Use the map below to compare your own lifts against the average squat, bench press, and deadlift for each state’s best lifters.

If some of these feats some hard to believe, we’ve got video proof below. After all, #novidnodid. 😉

State Strength Rankings

Below you will find the states ranked by the average wilks score of its top 10 lifters.

Mobile users can click on each state name to reveal more data. All weights are in pounds (lb).

Lifter Strength Rankings

Here you can find the relevant data for the top lifters by wilks in each state between 2016 and 2020.

Mobile users can click on each lifter’s name to reveal more data. All weights are in pounds (lb).

Ray Williams

Representing Mississippi with the highest wilks performance is Ray Williams, who totaled 1,112.5 kg (2,453 lb) at the SBD Pro American on March 2, 2019. This is a wilks score of 593.8.

Here is a video of all nine attempts he made during that earth shattering performance:

Ray Williams 1112.5 kg All Time Total World Record (RAW) - SBD Pro American - 1st Place 120+ kg

Taylor Atwood

The second highest wilks performance goes to Taylor Atwood, representing New York. He totaled 812 kg (1,790 lb) weighing just 73.72 kg (163 lb) on October 18, 2020 at the USAPL Florida State Championships. This earned him a wilks score of 585.6.

Here is a quick recap of this meet:

Taylor Atwood - 812 kg Total WR @ 74 kg

Austin Perkins

Also representing Mississippi is Austin Perkins, who totaled 800 kg (1,764 lb) on November 14, 2020 while weighing 72.7 kg (160 lb) to earn a wilks of 582.8.

The First 11X Bodyweight Junior Total (800 kg @ 72.7 kg)

Methodology

• All data is sourced from Open Powerlifting
• Data is from 2016-2020, accessed January 6, 2021
• Lifters must meet the following criteria to be eligible for their state
  • Drug tested = true
  • Equipment = raw
  • Age = 18 or older
  • Event = SBD (full power)
• Each lifter’s best full power meet performance is ranked within the state they represented at the time of the competition. This way, the same lifter cannot count more than once toward a given state’s average.
  • However, it is possible for the same lifter to appear twice on the list, but only if they moved between 2016 and 2020 and re-registered with their federation under a different state.
• The top 10 totals by wilks were used to calculate each state’s averages. Including Washington DC and Guam, this resulted in a total of 513 lifting performances (Guam only had 3 performances in the time period that met the above criteria).
  • This was done to compare each state’s best lifters against each other. Including all lifters in this type of calculation would “water down” the averages of states where powerlifting is more popular and there are more low-level lifters.

Full Data

If you’d like to browse the full data, you can find it on this Google Sheet.