Where the Typical American Eats

Apparently Jennifer, our Typical American, likes the Golden Arches and thinks things do taste better on a Ritz.

The Typical American's Health

Jennifer, our Typical American, is a non-smoker but does like a wee drink every now and then.

More of the Typical American's Health

Jennifer, our Typical American, proves to be fairly good at making healthy choices in terms of oral health, seat belts, and pap tests.

Americans Die of Different Things at Different Ages

Most Americans will live into old age and finally die of heart disease.  Jennifer, our Typical American, will likely live into her mid-70s.  Americans die of different things at different ages.  So, if a child dies in the US before the age of one, the leading cause of death is a birth defect.  From the age of 1 until we hit the age of 44, motor vehicle accidents and other unintentional injuries are the leading killers.  From 45 to 64, it's cancer.  And after age 65 heart disease rises to become the #1 killer of Americans.

The Typical American's Death

Something's gonna get ya.  In the case of Jennifer, our Typical American, it will be heart disease.  Heart disease is the leading killer among Americans followed by cancer, respiratory disease, stroke, and unintentional injuries.  The CDC's WISQARS database provides these statistics.

The Typical American's Voting Practices

Jennifer, our Typical American, is now likely a registered independent.

The Typical American's Shopping Habits

Where does Jennifer, our Typical American, shop?

The Typical American's Shopping Habits

Today's post is about the shopping habits of Jennifer, our Typical American.

The Typical American's Views on Abortion

The Typical American's Moral Views

According to polling by Gallup, Americans' views on various issues of relationships and morality continue to evolve.  As of 2013 the majority of Americans view same-sex marriage, interracial marriage, divorce, sex outside of marriage, and having a child outside of marriage as morally acceptable.  Adultery remains unpopular.  Polygamy also remains unpopular although the percentage of Americans viewing polygamy as morally acceptable has doubled since 2001.

The Typical American's Religion

Jennifer, our Typical American, is a Christian.

The Typical American, More on Age

If you are 37, then you are the same age as the Typical American.  In fact, the mean age among Americans in 2012 was 37.4 and the median age was 37.4 too.  The median age has been creeping up as the large Baby Boomer cohort ages. In 2007 for instance the median age was 35.

In only one state is the median age under 30:  Utah.  In seven states the median age is now over 40:  Maine, West Virginia, , Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Florida.  West Virginia likely has an older population because of a large out-migration of younger people to other states for jobs.  Florida on the other hand reflects the opposite:  a large in-migration of retirees.  Only five years earlier in 2007, there were NO states where the median age was over 40.

The Typical American, Where Does She Live?

Jennifer, our Typical American, could live in a variety of places depending on how we slice the data.

The Typical American, Net Worth

Demographers usually use median household income rather than mean because several fabulously wealthy people are extreme outliers that obscure the income or net worth of most Americans.  As you can see in this example using 2007 data, Bill Gates, the then richest man in the world, had a net worth almost half a million times larger than the median American household.

The Typical American, Middle Class Ending?

We often hear politicians, marketers, friends, and family speaking out for the Middle Class, but how do we define just who falls into the Middle Class?

Well, according to the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey, about 78% of Americans fit into the Middle Class if we define that as a household earning a median household income between $15,000 and $149,000 per year.  Another 12% of Americans earn less than $15,000 a year.  And if you and your household earn more than $150,000 a year, you belong to the top 10% of household earners and thus the Upper Class.

If you are smack dab in the middle of the Middle Class, your household earns around $53,000, the median household income.

Median income, however, is on a continuum.  So it is subjective how we define Lower, Middle, and Upper Classes of people.  Moreover, sociologists find that what class people identify with has far more complexity than simply how much money one earns.

In fact, recently the Pew Research Center found that the percentage of Americans who identify as Middle Class has dropped to the point that almost as many Americans now identify as Lower Class.  Americans identifying as Upper Class have also declined since the Great Recession hit at the end of the Bush administration.

Thus, no majority of Americans identify with any social class since around 2011.  Instead, the plurality still identifies as Middle Class but just barely.

The Typical American, Work

Like nearly two-thirds of the population (64.7%), Jennifer, our Typical American, is part of the labor force. She is currently employed as a teacher, health care worker, social worker, or similar service worker (22.9%).

Jennifer works for a wage at a private company (78.7%) that provides her with a health insurance benefit.

The Typical American, Housing Values

Earlier this week I posted about the typical American home based on data from the American Community Survey (ACS).  The ACS provides some other interesting data on Americans and housing:

• Jennifer, our typical American, moved into her house between 2000 and 2009 (51.7%).
• She owns her home (65.5%) but is still paying off the mortgage (67.1%). 
• The house is currently valued at a median value of $181,400.  Jennifer and her husband’s monthly mortgage payment is a median of $1,559. 
• If they decided to rent somewhere else instead, they would pay a median rent of $889.

The Typical American, Home Sweet Home

The Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) collects data on American residents’ housing.  While the US Census and ACS collect data on people by household, the housing data are collected based on housing units (houses, duplexes, apartments, etc.).  Based on these data, Jennifer, our typical American, lives:

• In a single family, detached house (61.7% of housing units are single family, detached housing units)
• Built between 1970 and 1979 (16.1%)
• With 5 rooms total (20.4%)
• Including 3 bedrooms (39.8%), a complete kitchen (99.1%), complete plumbing (99.5%), and telephone service (97.5%).
• The house is heated by gas from a utility company (49.4%).

How typical is your home?

The Typical American, Born in the USA?

According to data from the 2012 American Community Survey, 1 in 7 American residents were born outside the United States.  About half of the foreign-born residents are now US citizens.  With the focus of "birther" conspiracists who argue that President Obama was born outside the US, there has been more attention given to the Constitution's requirement that only a natural born citizen can be President.  There are some interesting political factoids around this issue and recent US presidential elections:

• In 2012, the fathers of both the Democratic (Obama) and Republican (Romney) candidates were born outside the United States.  President Obama's father was born in Kenya.  Gov. Romney's father was born in Mexico.  
• In the 2008 presidential election, the Republican candidate, John McCain, was born outside the US. He was born in Panama in what was then the US Panama Canal Zone to American parents.  His grandfather and father at the time were commanders of the Coco Solo submarine base and a submarine based there.
• At one time there was discussion about amending the US Constitution to allow any citizen to run for President.  This discussion arose around the possibility of Austrian-born former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger running for President.

So exactly how does one become a natural born citizen?  The Constitution does not define this term but according to Wikipedia, a 2011 Congressional Research Service report laid out the argument that this term applied to anyone who met the requirements for citizenship at birth.  Thus, that would include anyone born in the United States regardless of whether one, two, or none of the baby's parents are US citizens.  US Senator Ted Cruz for example was until recently both an American and Canadian citizen because he was born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father.  He has since renounced his Canadian citizenship. While his father was not a US citizen until 2005, I do not know if his Cuban-born father was a Cuban or Canadian by citizenship at the time of his birth.  Cruz could possibly file to have Cuba recognize him as a citizen too!

The second way one becomes a natural born citizen is by being born to an American citizen who is abroad.  George Romney (former governor of Michigan and Mitt Romney's father), John McCain, and Ted Cruz all fit this category.  Oddly, even if Barack Obama was born in Kenya -as some birthers claim- to his Kansas-born American mother, he would still be a natural born citizen.  These birthers obsess about where he was born but none appear to refute that his mother was an American citizen.

The US is a nation born of immigrants stretching back 10,000s of years to when the first humans arrived.  That process is not complete:  today millions of Americans are newcomers to this country.

The Typical American, Moving

Have you moved in the past year?  If so, you do not match the profile of Jennifer, our Typical American. Still, many Americans move each year.  One in 7 Americans moved in 2012 according to data from the 2012 American Community Survey.

Be sure to check out this earlier post about Chris Walker's visualization of interstate migration.