According to a November 2025 report on American social life, Rhode Island residents love going out the most in the country. The study by the fintech company SensaPay aimed to find where Americans spend more time and money dining out, attending live events, and enjoying nightlife.

• Rhode Island has the largest going-out culture in America, with residents spending over $500 per month on restaurants alone.
• People in Hawaii spend more on entertainment than anyone else, putting over $400 monthly just for concerts, theater, and other shows.
• California has 68K restaurants and 3,370 bars, giving residents more dining and nightlife choices than any other state.

The research compared all 50 states to identify where people eat out and attend live events most frequently. The study looked at restaurant and entertainment expenses, how often people go to movies and arts performances, and how many restaurants, bars, and movie theaters each state has. These numbers were adjusted based on state size to make fair comparisons. States were then ranked using a score from 0 to 100.

Here’s a look at the top 10 states with the biggest going-out culture:

State	Average amount spent on dining out per month ($)	Average amount spent on live entertainment ($)	% of adults who went to the movies in a year	% of adults attended a live performing art event in a year	Going Out Culture Score
Rhode Island	516	143	46	52	97
Hawaii	591	408	44	36	87
California	547	322	52	37	86
Connecticut	540	145	35	47	79
Massachusetts	450	233	38	45	78
New Jersey	495	111	29	30	76
Maryland	453	171	41	43	74
New York	514	220	34	27	74
Colorado	499	110	47	40	73
Minnesota	402	223	45	49	72

You can access the complete research findings here.

1. Rhode Island

• Monthly dining out spending: $516
• Monthly live entertainment spending: $143
• Number of restaurants: 1,831
• Number of bars: 229
• Number of movie theaters: 27
• Adults who went to movies in the past year: 46%
• Adults who attended live arts events in the past year: 52%

Rhode Island residents love going out more than anyone else in America. People here spend over $500 a month on restaurants and another $143 on live performances, making them some of the biggest spenders when it comes to entertainment. Finding a place to have fun here isn’t hard either, as despite its tiny size, the state has 2,000 restaurants and 300 bars.

2. Hawaii

Hawaii comes second with locals paying more than $400 monthly for live events, nearly triple the national average. Add in the $591 they spend on restaurants, and Hawaiians are dropping close to $1,000 each month just on going out. The state has over 2,500 restaurants and nearly 200 bars spread across its islands, so there’s always somewhere new to try.

3. California

California takes third place as the place with the most dining and nightlife options in America. The state has 68K restaurants and 3,370 bars serving 39M people. With so many places to go out, people here end up spending $547 monthly on dining and another $322 on entertainment. Californians also seem to especially love cinemas, as more than half of the population went to the movies last year.

4. Connecticut

Connecticut follows next. The state has over 6,000 restaurants and nearly 300 bars in one of the smallest areas in the country. The typical resident here spends $540 monthly at restaurants and $145 on live entertainment. Unlike Californians, Connecticut residents prefer live performances over movies, with nearly half of them saying they attended such an event last year.

5. Massachusetts

Massachusetts rounds out the top five, with residents spending $450 monthly on eating out and $233 on live entertainment. The state offers more than 10K restaurants and 700 bars, meaning everything is close by here. Massachusetts residents love attending live events as much as Connecticutians, but they equally enjoy movies too, as more than 120 cinemas are operating in the state.

The CEO of SensaPay commented on the study:

“We see that people in the Northeast go out more, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that those in the South do not enjoy spending time in restaurants or bars. It’s just that salaries are better there, so spending several hundred dollars monthly on dining and entertainment is more manageable. Employment rates are higher, too. So when you’re earning well and holding a typical 9-5 job, you’re much more likely to go out and let off steam regularly.”