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While racism is thought to be rife in the Southern US states, a new 'hate map of America' reveals prejudice to be common elsewhere.

The map suggests that the coal region and rust belt in the American Northeast, along with the South, have now become the most racist areas of the US.

The rust belt straddles the upper northeastern US, the Great Lakes, and the Midwest states, while the coal region is found in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the spine of the Appalachian Mountains.

The map revealed that clusters of racism appeared in areas of the Gulf Coast, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and a large portion of Ohio. Racism (in red) in the New England states, along with New York, were two of the most surprising discoveries for the researchers

The map was based its results on Google search data – a technique previously used by data scientists to understand how racism may impact Barack Obama's electoral chances, according to the Washington Post. 

'Google data, evidence suggests, are unlikely to suffer from major social censoring,' Harvard University data scientist, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, wrote in an earlier paper.

He added that Google searchers are online and likely alone, both of which make it easier to express socially taboo thoughts.

Asking someone about racism in a traditional survey rarely works, says Stephens-Davidowitz, because people may lie, and often, racism can operate on a subconscious level.

As part of the study, researchers at the University of Maryland, Columbia University, Emory University and Harvard University looked at searches containing the n****r.

They found that it was searched for frequently, as often as, for instance, 'economist,' 'sweater,' and 'Daily Show'.

The map revealed that clusters of racism appeared in areas of the Gulf Coast, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and a large portion of Ohio.

Racism in the New England states, along with New York, were two of the most surprising discoveries for the researchers.

Searches for the N-word are less frequent in the west of Texas.

The researchers on the Plos One paper found that racist searches were correlated with higher death rates in black communities.

'Results from our study indicate that living in an area characterised by a one standard deviation greater proportion of racist Google searches is associated with an 8.2 per cent increase in the all-cause mortality rate among Blacks,' the authors wrote.

The map looks strikingly similar to a recent a map of racist Tweets made by researchers at Humboldt State University. Students studied 150,000 geocoded tweets sent out between June 2012 and April 2013 containing 10 pre-selected hate words in three categories: Racism, homophobia and disability

The map looks strikingly similar to a recent a map of racist Tweets made by researchers at Humboldt State University.

Students studied 150,000 geocoded tweets sent out between June 2012 and April 2013 containing 10 pre-selected hate words in three categories: Racism, homophobia and disability.

Researchers discovered 41,306 tweets containing the word n****r, 95,123 referenced 'homo', among other terms.

Tweets that included the slur n****r, were not concentrated in any single region in the US.

Instead, there are a number of pockets of concentration, including East Iowa, where 31 users sent out 41 tweets referencing the word, and Fountain, Indiana, where there were 22 tweets containing the slur.

Perhaps the most interesting concentration comes for references to 'wetback' - a derogatory term used for illegal Mexican immigrants.

Most tweets containing the offensive term came from several parts of Texas, which surprisingly are not even close to the Mexican-American border.

While racism may appear rife in the US, a separate study found that overall, Western countries are the most accepting of other cultures with Britain, the U.S.and Australia more tolerant than anywhere else.

The data came from the World Value Survey, which measured the social attitudes of people in different countries.

The country with the highest proportion of 'intolerant' people who wanted neighbours similar to them was Jordan, where 51.4 per cent of the population would refuse to live next to someone of a different race.

Next was India with 43.5 per cent.

Racist views are strikingly rare in the U.S., according to the survey, which claims that only 3.8 per cent of residents are reluctant to have a neighbour of another race. 

The country with the highest proportion of 'intolerant' people who wanted neighbours similar to them was Jordan, where 51.4 per cent of the population would refuse to live next to someone of a different race. Next was India with 43.5 per cent. Racist views are strikingly rare in the U.S., according to the survey