These are the places in the world that are so beautiful they don't need an Instagram filter

Tom Anderson

Most of the time on Instagram, people are trying to dress up the world to look better than real life. Instagram filters make colors look more vibrant and light look most dramatic.

But Instagram's #nofilter tag is a glimpse into the places in the world where we have the opposite urge. These are places that are so mind-blowing that the thought of putting a filter on them seems silly.

Now bus-booking site Busbud has done an analysis of over a million posts tagged #nofilter, and found which places in the world don't need special effects.

These are the top five places in the world that have the highest density of #nofilter posts:

1. Bahamas
2. Iceland
3. Finland
4. Croatia
5. Canada

These are all places generally thought of as having an intense natural beauty, and it makes sense that users would take the opportunity to brag on Instagram. But what's strange is that other users weren't necessarily equally impressed. When looking at which #nofilter posts had the most "likes," the only place that maintained its top five ranking was the Bahamas. These are the top five places with the highest density of Instagram likes on #nofilter posts:

1. The Maldives
2. Lebanon
3. Israel
4. Bahamas
5. Kazakhstan

The Maldives, a string of islands in the Indian ocean, took the top spot. And it's not hard to see why.

And from this data, it looks like there is a disconnect between cold locales and Instagram likes. When you move from posts to likes, Iceland, Finland, and Canada both drop out of the top five.Maybe people are just tired of seeing pictures of the Northern Lights, but you keep wanting to post them.Lastly, it has to be noted that not all posts tagged #nofilter actually tell the truth. Busbud found that more than 7% of posts tagged #nofilter did, in fact, have a filter. Cheaters.

 

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