Austin Might Be Weird, But It's Also Romantic Study Says

AUSTIN, TX — The city might want to change its unofficial motto from "Keep Austin Weird" to "Keep Austin Amorous." If the findings of a recent survey are to be believed, the state capital is the third most romantic city in the country — making an impressive comeback from last year when it ranked as the third least romantic city.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Instacart researchers have compiled their list of the most and least romantic cities in the country. To achieve the rankings, Instacart officials studied user behavior by comparing growth-adjusted, week-over-week changes in the popularity of various search terms.

"We used a data set comprised of millions of searches from consumers spread over the 190 North American markets in which Instacart operated in 2017," researchers explained. "Our results are focused on the strongest relative rise in customer interest in the week of Valentine’s Day for our designated search terms."

By that reckoning, Austin apparently made a stunning reversal in terms of its denizens' affectionate tendencies. The city was a cellar dweller last year in the emotions department, joining such unromantic hotbeds (or maybe tepidbeds? Lukewarmbeds?) as Atlanta, Brooklyn, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco.

But oh, what a difference a year makes! In an astonishing reversal of feelings and sentiment, Austin is now among the most romantic cities in the country — No. 3 not with a bullet but a cupid's arrow through the heart. Even the romance researchers seemed impressed at the impressive comeback: "Austin, the Texas capital, also decided to get serious about romance this year, swapping their rank as the third LEAST romantic city to the third MOST romantic. We see you, Austin."

We see you too, Instacart. And thanks for the shout-out.

For the second annual Instacart Romance Index, researchers identified 12 universally romantic terms and used them to determine which cities were the most — and least — romantic. Cities boasting the biggest bumps in romantic searches ranked high on the index. Conversely, those cities that treated February 14 as “just another day” fell to the bottom, researchers noted.

Only two other Texas cities ranked among the top — although not on the compilation ranking they might've hoped to achieve. Houston, we have a heart problem: You were ranked eighth least-romantic city after having barely squeaked by in the most romantic list last year. San Antonio didn't fare too well either, taking the seventh slot of most unromantic municipalities. (Has Instacart ever taken a romantic evening stroll along the Riverwalk or on one of those barges? Clearly not.)

Spoiler alert: The most romantic town, according to Instacart, is Boston. The least romantic: Indianapolis. To see the full rankings, click here. And chin up, Houston and San Antonio as there's always next year. Take a lesson from us here in Austin, and watch and learn. The love doctor is in.

>>> Image via Shutterstock