Data

Mean Income - The average income per household per state per year. There is extreme variation, with New Jersey's average income being six figures and Mississippi barely making over 60,000. 

Median Income - The median income per household per state per year. This is lower than the average income because the median is not influenced as much by outliers. Due to wealth inequality, there are individuals in each state that make a lot more than anyone else and while this pulls up the average, it does not affect the median nearly as noticeably. 

Wealth Inequality (Mean - Median) - I measured wealth inequality as simply the average income minus the median income. 

Value of $100 - This is my cost of living indicator. States where $100 is worth less than that have a high cost of living, and states where it's worth more have a lower cost of living. Cost of living is influenced by many factors such as housing costs, transportation, shipping, and taxes. 

Bachelors Degree Percentage - The percent of people who have bachelors degrees per state. 

Volunteer Percentage - The percentage of people who have formally volunteered through an organization recognized by AmeriCorps. 

Diversity Index - The diversity index by the World Population Review weights cultural, economic, religious and political diversity. 

% Sun - The percentage of daylight hours between sunrise and sunset. This was measured in one city per state so it is possible that this is not a super consistent measurement for describing the entire state. 

Poverty Percentage - The percentage of people living below the poverty line per state.

Parks - The percentage of land covered by state or national parks. This does not include community or city parks. 

Political Party - The political party the state usually aligns with. This is either Democratic, Republican or Swing State. 

Effective Taxation: The tax burden for each state based on local taxes (which are paid by residents) divided by that state's share of the national product. This is because when we pay national taxes, some of it goes to fund other states.

Primary Industry: The largest industry in each state based on their real GDP from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. There are five types of major industries in the US, which are Real Estate, Manufacturing, Information, Resource Extraction and Technical Services. 

Nominal GDP: Gross Domestic Product that does not account for inflation. The Gross Domestic Product is the total value of goods/services produced within each state. 

Voter Turnout: The percentage of the population who voted.

Crime Rate: The crime rate per state per 100k people.

Image Citations:

Aerial view of sandy beach, clear turquoise water. (n.d.). iStock. Retrieved from https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/aerial-view-of-clear-turquoise-sea-gm956431518-261142734.

Southern Living. (2022, June 30). Books. Southern Living. Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://links.southernliving.com/

3 Factors That Drive the U.S. Dollar. Investopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/thmb/Z9hn3yJjTENp_e170q9z0c9ZpbM=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-83077314-31d4b4d009f443c8ac37ee30eec32800.jpg

Ajijchan. (n.d.). Geometric illustration of multi coloured human figures. iStock. Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/geometric-illustration-of-multi-coloured-human-figures-gm1357830750-431625899

The lancet | the best science for better lives. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2023, from https://www.thelancet.com/