Passport ownership in America, by state. Let’s play "Correlations" | Hacker News Reader

Passport ownership in America, by state. Let’s play "Correlations"

exp.lore.com

16 pointsroyosherove14 comments

Wealthier states do more global travel? It's expensive.

Yeah, it's basically the reverse of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/US_states... but they didn't mention that correlation for some reason.

There's a pretty good correlation with "states on the verge of bankruptcy", too.

Alaska being the outlier here.

take away alaska's enormous per-capita federal subsidies and they'd be dead in a heartbeat.

Give Alaska back the vast majority of its land and resources (something like 80-90% of the land is outright owned by the Feds, and they restrict access to vast amounts of state land, using environmental reasons as the excuse) which are owned or controlled by the federal government and we'd be self-sufficient in a heartbeat, even if we aren't already.

I seriously doubt your characterization of our Federal subsidies. Just as one example, Hawaii gets more interstate highway funds then we do, and we're responsible for the Alcan highway, one of the largest highways in the nation. Hawaii, as you might notice, has no interstate highways. We aren't heavily subsidized, as we have more than enough revenue from the oil leases on the North Slope.

If every state was left to its own devices (just a thought experiment here), Alaska would be one of the best situated due to is vast resources, active port (air cargo in particular uses Anchorage's facilities in huge amounts), and economic stability.

/rant

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/08/americas-f...

I like how "the Northeast" is represented as wealthier. As a resident of Maine, I can tell you that ain't why we have more passports. Rather, think about our position in the North, having almost no markets for manfuactured goods to the south (better served by cheaper states in the Southeast), our markets are almost all in Canada. And thank you 9/11 now we all need passports to get over the border.

Don't forget this one: http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/08/americas-f...

Honestly, all these (with the exception of Alaska) come down to population density. In the US, it's not North versus South, it's urban versus rural, as far as demographic divides go.

1) More than 60% of residents in the northeast, California and Alaska have passports. Northeast and California because of higher incomes and higher education levels, Alaska because it's isolated from the lower 48.

2) In the southern states, many people don't have passports (except for FL). There's a lot of poverty, few college graduates, and they don't have much in the way of LBGT rights in the workplace. Nothing new there.

3) People living in the Indian reservations [1] are amongst the poorest, but they do tend to have passports.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bia-map-indian-reservation...

"Northeast and California because of higher incomes and higher education levels, Alaska because it's isolated from the lower 48."

Alaska has high incomes and high education levels also. In fact it has the second highest median household income of any state (only Maryland is higher).

It also has education levels higher than either New York or California. 91.4% of Alaskans have a high school education or more, compared to 80.6% of Californians and 84.7% of New Yorkers.

Edit: added references.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_income http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0233.p...

Alaska wasn't shown on most of the maps that were linked to the article, that's why I didn't mention income or education level.

"It also has education levels higher than either New York or California."

According to your stats, that's certainly not the case for higher education – Alaska scores below the national average.

Bachelor's degree or more:

DC 48.5%, New York 32.4%, California 29.9%, US average 27.9%, Alaska 26.6%

Advanced degree or more:

DC 28%, New York 14%, California 10.7%, US average 10.3%, Alaska 9%

"According to your stats, that's certainly not the case for higher education"

I didn't say "higher" education. I said "education levels".

20% of Californians don't even have a high school education, which is pretty bad.

If you want to argue that allegedly liberal states like New York and California tend to be bimodal, with an elite overclass and an impoverished underclass, I won't disagree.

"New York and California tend to be bimodal, with an elite overclass and an impoverished underclass"

So true.

florida probably has high passport rate due to accessibility of nearby countries, and huge immigrant population.

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