Some Cities Are Just More City-Like

Some cities are...well...more city-like than others.  Population density is a big factor.  Out in Flagstaff, AZ, the metro area is big and relatively empty with only 7 people per square mile.  A couple of hundred miles west, however, is Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana where 2,652 people per square mile soak up that southern California sunshine.  I was frankly surprised.  I thought New York City would be America's most dense metro area, but it is now #2 behind LA.  Still, the eastern seaboard cities, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Tampa, south Florida, and the San Francisco Bay area still pack in the people to provide that yummy urban goodness.

Asian Urban America

This rather oddly laid out map reflects that all the metro areas where Asian Americans constitute 10% or more of the population are in the West.  Asian Americans make up 44% of residents in Honolulu.  Greater than 1 in 4 residents in Silicon Valley are also Asian.

What If: The Missouri and Crittenden Compromises

One of the more fascinating theories in modern physics is the concept of the multiverse where each decision made creates multiple universes. So, in one universe you chose strawberry ice cream today. In another you chose chocolate. In another you chose vanilla. It opens the door to wondering what if such-and-such has happened differently in another universe.


My partner is taking an American history class this semester and on a long car trip we read American history to each other. Of interest to me was the Missouri Compromise. For the past 15 years I have lived two blocks from the former home of Henry Clay, the early 19th century Kentucky master politician who guided the passage of the Missouri Compromise through Congress. I was intrigued about the geopolitical implications of this law if it had continued into later American history.


For those of you -like myself- a little hazy about the Missouri Compromise, it was a law passed in 1820 to keep the peace between the Southern and Northern states. Forty-four years after the Declaration of Independence, the North and South were quickly becoming very different Americas. Both regions economies were primarily based on agriculture, but the North was rapidly industrializing and desired a stronger Federal government that would invest tax dollars in industrial and transportation infrastructure and place higher tariffs on foreign imports. Slavery was also largely illegal in the North. The South on the other hand was politically ran by the plantation-based, export-oriented planters making up 1% of the South's population. While most Southerners were small farmers of modest means, racism, pride, and political manipulation by the very wealthy still led the white male Southern voter to support the slave economies pushed by the wealthy planters. In the South industrialization was far less advanced. Instead the Southern planters exported much of their cotton, indigo, sugar, and tobacco crops overseas to Great Britain and other European buyers. They then bought manufactured goods -and tea- from the British and other Europeans. Thus, Southerners developed a taste for sweet tea and a distaste for tariffs on foreign imports which raised their costs. Southern planters and their local allies opposed a strong Federal government which was suspected of wanting to abolish slavery.


The number of Southern Slave states and Northern Free states were about even by the early 1800s. A crisis ensued when Missouri and Maine applied for statehood. Slavery already existed in Missouri but there was a move to ban slavery in the Louisiana Purchase. After various political tussling, Henry Clay was able to broker and pass the Missouri Compromise that banned slavery in the former Louisiana Purchase north of 36 degrees 30 minutes of latitude (Missouri's southern boundary) except for Missouri. So, Missouri was admitted as a slave state and Maine as a free state. By 1837 there were an even 13 free states in the North and 13 slave states in the South. This uneasy peace lasted until 1854 when the Nebraska-Kansas Act replaced the Missouri Compromise with a system to let Nebraska and Kansas vote individually on whether to be a slave or free state.


When Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860 precipitated South Carolina and other Southern states to secede, another Kentucky politician, John Crittenden, offered a new compromise: extend the 36° 30′ Missouri Compromise line all the way to the Pacific. The so-called Crittenden Compromise failed to pass, and the Civil War ensued.


This map asks what could have happened if the Crittenden Compromise had passed and the South then not seceded. Instead, what if the same uneasy peace of the 1820-1854 had become an entrenched system. Without the South's secession to provoke Federal military action, would the horror of slavery been abolished by 2014? Would the system of admitting two states -one slave and one free- to keep the balance have continued? This map explores this scenario and is based on historical facts:


a. In the US of the Missouri and Critten Compromises, slavery is abolished largely north of the 36° 30′ parallel.


b. Without the Civil War to initiate its breakaway from Virginia, the counties that now constitute West Virginia remain part of the Virginia.


c. To even the free and slave state balance, the Dakota Territory and the Oregon Territory are admitted as single states rather than as North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, and Washington. And the once larger Deseret dreamed of by Mormon settlers has come into existence as the state of Deseret, the combination of Utah and Nevada. Keep in mind that some of the first white settlers of Nevada were Mormon farmers who established towns such as Las Vegas.


d. California on the other hand has been split into the free North California and slave South California roughly along 36° 30′ but actually along the Kern-Tulare County boundary.


e. Alaska has been admitted as a free state, but Hawaii and its sugar plantations have legalized human bondage.


f. Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma have been admitted as slave states.


g. When the US annexed the former Mexican province of Texas (by then the independent Republic of Texas), the terms of annexation allow Texas to split into 5 states. This has happened to create North, South, East, West, and Central Texas.


h. Finally, even with 5 mini-Texases and other states, the South is still shy 3 states to have parity with the North. History, however, shows that Southern planters advocated annexing or buying Cuba and other Caribbean islands with a long history of slavery and plantation agriculture. In this scenario Cuba is now a state along with Puerto Rico and the combined US and British Virgin Islands.


The result is a nation of 54 states: 27 free states and 27 where the abomination of slavery still remains legal.

Minority Majority States

In demography you lately hear the term majority minority state.  This is a state where non-Hispanic Whites make up less than 50% of the population and where combined minority populations make up the majority.

If we only look at US Census Bureau data for race, Whites represent a minority population only in Hawaii and the District of Columbia.  Minorities make up 42-43% of the populations of California, Maryland, Georgia, and Mississippi, but still are not likely to break the 50% mark in the next few years.

If we add in ethnicity along with race, then more states are minority majority states.  You can be of any race and be Hispanic using the US Census definitions of race and ethnicity.  Thus, many Whites Americans are Hispanic.  In New Mexico, 45% of the population report they are Hispanic.

Adding up all the Americans who belong to racial minorities or are Hispanic Whites will produce four states where racial and ethnic minorities combined are the majority:

• Hawaii
• California
• New Mexico
• Texas

plus

• District of Columbia

California's Melting Pot

California is a special state in many ways demographically.  Foremost, more Americans live in California than any other state.  Californians make up 12% of the entire US population.  That means that more than 1 in 8 Americans live in the Golden State.



In terms of race and ethnicity, California also is impressive:

•  1 in 3 Asian Americans are Californians
• Almost 1 in 4 Hispanic Americans live in California
• More Hawaiian Americans and other Pacific Islanders live in California (144K) than in Hawaii (135K)
• 1 in 5 multi-racial Americans live in California
• About 12% of all Native Americans and Alaska Natives also call California home

As for Whites and Blacks, Californians represent smaller percentages of these groups.  The Golden State accounts for only 6% of the total US Black population.  One in 10 White Americans are Californians.  

Where the Big Families Are

This map is somewhat deceptive.  The average American household size in 2010 was 2.5 people per household.  The smallest average household size is among the densely urban District of Columbia (2.11 people per household) and rural, sparsely populated North Dakota (2.3 people per household).  Utah with its higher percentage of children has the largest households at 3.1 people per household.  So, there is not a huge difference between 2.11 and 3.1.

This map though shows the statistical standard deviations between the states (with DC excluded because it is such an outlier).  Still, you are going to find larger households on average in California, Utah, Texas, and Hawaii.  The western states in general plus Georgia and the large metropolitan suburbs in Maryland and New Jersey also attract larger households.

Map: Where You Are Most Likely to Be Stuck in a Part-time Job

This map looks at the percentage of workers who want a full-time job but can only find part-time work.  In technical terms, this map shows the highest rates of underemployment in the United States.

The Western states of Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington have considerably higher underemployment.  North Dakota and South Dakota have low overall unemployment and relatively few part-time workers unable to find full-time work.

Gestational Diabetes

The percentage of American adults who have ever been diagnosed with gestational diabetes is relatively low, but there are some significant differences between states.  Some states with relatively high gestational diabetes numbers (CA for instance) are below average in the percentage of adults with Type 2 diabetes.