We used science and data to determine which cities in Idaho are redneck heaven.

This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as infotainment. Don’t freak out.

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Is there anything really wrong with being called an Idaho redneck? Sure, every state has them. While they might be defined with a different criteria in other states, there’s plenty of them all over Potato Land.

Plus, we’ve heard Idaho is almost 100% rednecks of some variety. I mean, you guys have more guns than kids. And have you ever heard this joke:

Did you hear that the governor’s mansion in Idaho burned down?

Almost took out the whole trailer park

All jokes aside, we post the question: What is a redneck anyways? Well, according to the official bible of literature, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a redneck is:

“A white person who lives in a small town or in the country especially in the southern U.S., who typically has a working-class job, and who is seen by others as being uneducated and having opinions and attitudes that are offensive.”

Plus, we thought why not add in a few stereotypes? Cause, you know, rednecks like to hunt, fish, drink, smoke and shoot things. And shop at Walmart.

Using that criteria, it’s not hard to scrape the internet, run some scientific data on where the most members of the Idaho redneck family tree most likely live. Most of these places probably won’t surprise you.

Because, the data never lies, does it?

So, hold our beers and watch this. After analyzing all cities with a decent amount of people in them, we came up with this list as The Most Redneck Cities in Idaho:

Salmon Burley (Photos) St. Maries Ponderay Jerome Kamiah Homedale Victor Challis Weiser (Photos)

Read on below to see where your town ranked.

For more Idaho reading, check out:


What redneck criteria did we use?

In order to rank the most redneck cities in Idaho, we had to determine what criteria makes a redneck.

We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using Yelp and Google Maps, this is the criteria we used:

The dictionary definition categories

Small towns

Least amount of high school graduates

And the stereotypical categories

Number of bars per city

Number of mobile home parks per capita

Number of tobacco stores per city

Number of places to get fishing gear

Number of guns and ammo stores per city

Walmarts, Bass Pro Shops, and dollar stores nearby

Note: For the sake of getting reliable numbers, we counted places within a city’s border, as well as within a short driving distance.

Additionally, high school graduation rates factor in the total town’s graduation rate, not the number of graduates from the high school every year.


1. Salmon

The Lantern Bar, Salmon, ID. Google Maps

Population: 4,608

High school graduation rate: 78%

Bars per capita: 7th in Idaho

Dollar stores per capita: 10th

Whoo-whee, Salmon! You have the official bragging rights as being named the most redneck city in the entire state of Idaho! You may now brag to your friends and share this endlessly on your Facebook walls.

Let’s see why. Whelp, first off, rednecks sure like to throw back some cold Busch Lights. And in Salmon, you guys have almost more bars per capita than anywhere else in the state. Nothing’s more redneck than sitting around the bar all afternoon, talking about when rut’s gonna hit.

And, did you know Salmon is home to the annual wolf and coyote hunting derby? There’s nothing more redneck than that.

When you consider that nearly 1 in 4 people here never graduated high school, what you’ve got is a little slice of redneck heaven about 10 beers southwest of Butte.

2. Burley

The Reloading Center, Burley, ID. Google Maps

Population: 10,157

High school graduation rate: 68%

Fishing/bait shops per capita: 8th in ID

Walmart rank: 6th

Yes, siree, there’s plenty of rednecks in the boonies around the Burley area, that’s fer damn sure.

Just the name of the town sounds necky.

Every good redneck town has to have a Walmart, and Burley has one all to themselves. For a redneck, that’s like short lines at Disneyland.

In fact, Burley’s Walmart is right along the banks of the Snake River. That means they can just walk in barefoot and grab whatever it is the fish are bitin’ on that day. Shoot, they can probably just open up the tailgate and throw in a line from the Walmart parking lot.

You can really tell who wasn’t studying. Burley teens, that’s who. That’s okay; with so many hunting and fishing distractions in the area, you can’t really blame them.

3. St. Maries

Guns N Pawn, St. Maries, ID. Google Maps

Population: 2,568

Chew factor: 6

Trailer parks per capita: 6th in ID

Per capita, there are almost more trailer, mobile home and RV parks in St. Maries than anywhere else. Rednecks love nothing more than sitting out by the fire, plugging rounds into the bug zapper.

And the number of tobacco stores per capita – what we refer to as the ‘chew factor’ – is sky high here. Burley’s is a 6. That means you ain’t runnin’ out of chew, that’s for sure.

St. Maries is way out in the boonies. If you want to see ‘em, take Route 3 south off of I-90 for a while. Look for the big pile of beer cans and the underwear frozen to the clothes line.

And bring duck tape. They’re out.

4. Ponderay

Army Surplus 1, Ponderay, ID. From their Facebook page

Population: 1,287

Gun stores per capita: 3rd in Idaho

Fishing/bait shops per capita: 1st

Walmart rank: 1st

They’ve got everything a redneck could ever want out in Ponderay, right along the banks of Lake Pend Oreille in the panhandle. Fishing, hunting, their very own Walmart…a redneck baby could grow up into a redneck dad and never have to leave Ponderay their entire lives.

Some probably don’t.

5. Jerome

Family Dollar, Jerome, ID. Google Maps

Population: 10,757

High school graduation rate: 61%

Chew factor: 10

Walmart rank: 4th

Wow, Jerome. Just think – had you guys studied even less as kids, you might have won this whole thing. When 4 out of 10 of you guys decided that blowing stuff up and getting stuck in the mud was more ‘fun’ than sitting in some math class on Monday morning, we can tell you guys know how to whoop it up redneck style big time.

That’s okay. We’re actually a little envious. Kinda sounds like fun.

6. Kamiah

Dale & Jill’s Sporting Goods, Kamiah, ID. Google Maps

Population: 1,400

Gun stores per capita: 5th in Idaho

High school graduation rate: 73%

Dollar stores per capita: 3rd

Way, way out on Route 12 east of Lewiston is the little necky town of Kamiah. They figured goin’ to class was a bore, too. But don’t make fun of their education. See, they have some gun stores in the area, and you can be sure they know how to use them.

Nothing’s more pissed off than a drunk redneck. Say the wrong thing in these parts, and you just might get some britches full of lead.

7. Homedale

Homedale, ID. Google Maps

Population: 2,631

High school graduation rate: 59%

Gun stores per capita: 10th in Idaho

Bars per capita: 10th

Almost half of Homedale residents didn’t get a high school degree. And that’s not even the lowest in the state. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of blue collar jobs (or any jobs, actually) in the area.

When you’re driving through, be sure to be on guard. You can bet there’s lots of shells flyin around here at all hours. Especially during hunting season.

You can bet lots and lots of Homedale folks spend a lot of their time along the Snake River. Apparently these parts have some of the best dry fly fishing in the country.

You can probably smell the fish fryers all the way to Nampa.

8. Victor

World Cast Anglers, Victor, ID. Google Maps.

Population: 2,631

Gun stores per capita: 6th in Idaho

Bars per capita: 4th in Idaho

Chew factor: 3

Victor is way down by Wyoming, not too far from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The area around here might be the most isolated in the state.

They’re surrounded by mountains out here. You can bet the deer, bears, squirrels, coons and possums practically walk right up to their front room windows in this part of the state.

Rednecks are darn good shots. Vermints have no chance in hell anywhere in this area. None at all.

9. Challis

Bux’s Place, Challis, ID. Google Maps

Population: 1,304

Mobile home and trailer parks per capita: 8th in Idaho

Bars per capita: 7th

Fishing stores per capita: 7th

Take Route 93 out of Idaho Falls, and you’ll eventually come to a rednecky town called Challis.

Down on Main Street in Challis, Idaho, you’ll find Bux’s Place. And at the bar at Bux’s Place, you’ll find several rednecks, throwing back Coors Lights, talking about things that rednecks talk about.

You know, NASCAR, who shot their limit last fall, who has the loudest truck.

You can bet yer’ chickens that sounds like the kind of place that’s worth stoppin’ by for a bit.

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Clifford’s Tavern, Weiser, ID. Google Maps

Population: 5,469

High school graduation rate: 67%

Bars per capita: 5th in ID

Chew factor: 9th

Weiser has plenty of places to drink and smoke, and they have a dollar store. So there’s no excuse for showing up to a Weiser barbecue empty handed.

But if they want to go to Walmart, they have to gas up the truck and rumble into Oregon. That’s only for special occasions, like when the cousins from Salmon are coming into town.

By the way, Weiser, it’s never too late to work on your GED. And that doesn’t stand for Get ‘Er Done, either.

There You Have It

According to the official dictionary definition of a redneck, and based on stereotypes that the internet says are true, using science to determine the most redneck cities in a state can’t be too far off. If you’re analyzing smaller cities in Idaho with blue collar workers, where people have lots of options for drinking, fishing, hunting and Walmarting, this is an accurate list.

If you’re curious enough, here are the least redneck cities in Idaho (if that’s even possible):

Chubbock (Pop. 13,773) Iona (Pop. 1,679) Osburn (Pop. 1,663) Preston (5,162) Sugar City (Pop. 1,270)

We also wrote a story on the worst places to live in Idaho if you didn’t happen to see it. Click that link to read it.

City Population Rank Salmon 3117 1 Burley 10157 2 St. Maries 2568 3 Ponderay 1287 4 Jerome 10757 5 Kamiah 1400 6 Homedale 2631 7 Victor 2088 8 Challis 1304 9 Weiser 5469 10 Sun Valley 1226 11 Ketchum 2728 12 Driggs 2191 13 Sandpoint 7397 14 Orofino 3103 15 Kellogg 2151 16 Bellevue 2010 17 Bonners Ferry 2621 18 Wendell 2750 19 Emmett 6555 20 Parma 2119 21 Arco 1158 22 Wilder 1627 23 New Plymouth 1674 24 Ashton 894 25 Blackfoot 11781 26 Payette 7462 27 Priest River 1721 27 Gooding 3533 29 Rupert 5496 30 Garden City 11095 31 Glenns Ferry 1367 32 Fruitland 4678 33 Buhl 4122 34 Grangeville 3150 35 Dalton Gardens 2140 36 Spirit Lake 1684 37 Hansen 1055 38 Plummer 1027 39 Ucon 1560 40 Malad City 2208 41 Paul 1101 42 Star 5745 43 Pinehurst 1525 44 Heyburn 3076 45 American Falls 4382 46 Hailey 7905 47 Montpelier 2585 48 Middleton 5542 49 Marsing 1409 50 Rathdrum 6840 51 St. Anthony 3527 52 Soda Springs 3024 53 Shoshone 1908 54 Aberdeen 2101 55 Hayden 13258 55 Mountain Home 13879 57 Rigby 3921 58 Shelley 4384 59 Genesee 994 60 Filer 2490 61 Kuna 15192 62 Kimberly 3257 63 Ammon 13575 64 Mccall 2938 64 Eagle 19952 66 Lapwai 1219 67 Sugar City 1270 68 Preston 5162 69 Osburn 1633 70 Iona 1679 71 Chubbuck 13773 72

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