Here at CE Pro, manufacturers and integrators routinely send us case studies of their often luxurious smart home projects. As you can imagine, many of these case studies are of homes in typically luxurious areas, like the California coast, near the ocean in the Miami area, and other affluent areas around the country. However, those are hardly the states with the most smart homes, according to a new study from digital forensics and data recovery firm Secure Data Recovery.

According to the Los Angeles, Calif.-based firm, Connecticut is the home with the most smart homes, as 28.2% of its residents have adopted smart home technology.

Rounding out the top 10 are Utah, Maryland, Illinois and Nebraska, Arizona, Colorado, California, Texas and Nevada.

Contrary to a popular belief (possibly my own), the states with the highest average home price aren’t using smart home technology as much. A Forbes list of the most expensive states to buy homes only includes California, Colorado and Utah in its top 10 from the Secure Data Recovery list.

On the flipside, some states we’d expect to be leveraging smart home technology are not, according to Secure Data Recovery. Rounding out the top 10 states with the fewest smart homes are Alaska, Mississippi, Hawaii, Wyoming, Maine, Idaho, Vermont, Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia. Florida also appears at number 14 on that list.

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Some of those more rural states are expected, but more expensive states such as Hawaii and New York appearing on that list of the fewest smart homes is surprising, especially considering that Hawaii has the highest average home prices, according to Forbes.

Here are those full lists:

States with the Most Smart Homes

1. Connecticut 28.2%
2. Utah 27.8%
3. Maryland 27.6%
4. Illinois 27.4%
5. Arizona 27.3%
6. Colorado 26.8%
7. Nebraska 26.3%
8. California 25.5%
9. Texas 25.5%
10. Nevada 25.3%
11. Minnesota 24.8%
12. Massachusetts 24.2%
13. Ohio 24.2%
14. Washington 24.0%
15. Oregon 23.6%
16. New Hampshire 23.3%
17. North Carolina 23.2%
18. Rhode Island 23.1%
19. Delaware 23.0%
20. Kansas  22.9%
21. Georgia 22.2%
22. New Jersey 22.0%
23. Indiana 21.9%
24. Alabama 21.6%
25. Michigan 20.9%
26. Wisconsin 20.9%

States with the Fewest Smart Homes

1. Alaska 13.0%
2. Mississippi 14.2%
3. Hawaii 14.5%
4. Wyoming 15.7%
5. Maine 15.9%
6. Idaho 16.4%
7. Vermont 16.7%
8. Pennsylvania 17.3%
9. New York 17.3%
10. West Virginia 17.4%
11. Kentucky 17.9%
12. Arkansas 18.4%
13. Virginia 18.4%
14. Florida 18.5%
15. Montana 18.6%
16. North Dakota 18.6%
17. Oklahoma 18.6%
18. New Mexico 18.8%
19. South Carolina 19.5%
20. Louisiana 19.5%
21. South Dakota 19.6%
22. Missouri 20.1%
23. Iowa 20.2%
24. Tennessee 20.7%

Other findings from the Secure Data Recovery study includes the surge in smart home adoption. According to the research, nearly 7% of American households had smart technology in 2015, and that figure is now at 22.3%.

Arizona, which was fifth on the list of smart home adopters, is making the most rapid growth with a 22.9% spike in smart home adoption. Connecticut, Nebraska, Illinois, and Colorado round out the top five.

Conversely, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi and Virgina – all states that appeared on the list of states with the fewest smart homes – are all lagging behind that growth, with growth margins between 5.2% and 9.7%.

Secure Data Recovery’s study also looked at which smart technology U.S. homeowners are adopting, and to no surprise, entertainment such as smart TVs or VR headsets are steadily in the lead at 72% adoption.

Security (56%), lighting (49%), climate control (39%), cleaning (30%), energy management (25%), kitchen appliances (15%), home fragrance (7%) and outdoor (6%) round out the remainder of the list.

 The study also looked at challenges smart home adopters face with the technology, with security systems being labeled “the most annoying” technology to deal with. Following security is entertainment, lighting and cleaning (18% each), climate control (10%), kitchen appliances (7%) and energy management (4%).

Respondents also ranked the most annoying traits of smart home technology, with the dependency on an internet connection being the biggest nuisance by far at 49%. Other issues were far less severe, with having too many apps on their phone, battery life, software updates and false alarms all at 15% or below.

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