Big Differences in Urban Americans' Ages

This intriguing map shows the median age in the United States' 366* metro areas.  Most metro areas have a median age somewhere in the 30s.  Eighteen metro areas, however, have populations whose median ages are under 30.  These include college towns like Ithaca (NY) and Athens (GA) as well as areas with large military bases such as Jacksonville (NC).  On the other end of the spectrum is the Punta Gorda metro area, a Florida retirement mecca where the median age is 55.8 years.  Another 71 metros -largely a mix of retirement/tourist areas and aging industrial towns- have median ages between 40-50 years.


*Some earlier maps show 366 metros but report there are only 365.  I miscounted.  There are 366.

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.

Urban Heavyweights: The Metro Areas Outproducing for Their Populations

27 metro areas produce over half of the United States' GDP.  The largest is New York City both in terms of population and GDP production.  Similarly, Los Angeles ranks #2 in both population and GDP.  The same with Chicago at #3.  This general trend holds except for a number of metro areas whose GDP production outperforms cities with larger populations.  This table compares GDP rank with population size rank.

With its oil refineries, Houston is the first of the outperformers.  With a population ranking at 5th largest in the country, it ranks 4th in GDP production.  The huge wealth produced by Silicon Valley also shows up in how San Francisco and especially San Jose rank economically higher than their population size.  The same holds true for the Seattle metro home to Microsoft.  Charlotte and Indianapolis also pull more economic weight than other, larger metro areas.

There are some 'slackers' too.  While Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario ranks as the 12th largest metro area in the US population-wise, its GDP ranking is only 26.  Similarly, Orlando, Cincinnati, Sacramento, and Nashville all rank in the top 27 largest metros in terms of population but do not rank in the top 27 metros in GDP rank.  

The Amazing Economic Power of America's Cities in Six Maps

According to the World Bank, the United States is the world's largest economy with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $16,244,600 MILLION.  This is almost double the GDP of China, the second largest economy on the planet.

America's 365 metropolitan areas produce 87% of the United States' GDP.

America's Metropolitan Areas

If you visited a different metropolitan area each day, it would take you a full year to visit each one.

From the Big City Subway to Merica: Election 2012

Eight of every 10 Americans now lives in a city or its suburbs.  As these maps hint, I believe many of the political divisions between the "Blue" and "Red" states are manifestations of growing cultural differences between urban and rural Americans.  

First, there are the economic differences.  The 10 largest metropolitan areas produce a whopping 34% of the country's total GDP (Gross Domestic Product).  In every state except three -Montana, Wyoming, and Vermont- metro areas produce the majority of each state's economic output according to an analysis by the Brookings Institute.  The Brookings Institute study also finds 93% of scientists and engineers live in metro areas.  In 30 states, the bulk of international exports are produced in metro areas.  Cities large and small are America's economic engines.  

Merica, the mostly rural, Republican-voting counties of the United States, tend to be older, less educated, and poorer.  There is an on-going debate over the nature of net dollar transfers of Federal tax dollars that I will discuss in future posts.  Ironically, -to quote recent political rhetoric- the counties of rural Merica are the 'Takers' who receive more Federal tax dollars in entitlement programs and other Federal programs than the wealthier, Democrat-leaning 'Makers' in urban areas.  Urban areas do not pay higher taxes into the Federal coffers, but they do contribute more in total dollars because of higher incomes among city-dwellers and a greater production of the nation's GDP.  Most -though not all- rural areas produce less and have older, sicker, and poorer residents who use more Medicaid, Medicare, and other Federal programming dollars.  

So, from an economic perspective, rural voters should be supportive of programs that help rural areas and the poors by maintaining or raising taxes.  These are more the positions supported by Democrats.  Yet, rural voters -as the maps below show- in areas except of New England, New York, Illinois, Maryland and California voted Republican in the 2012 Presidential election.  In turn, the urban voters who pay in more than they get back should economically do better in theory by supporting politicians who seek to lower Federal taxes and cut social safety net programs.  Again though, urban voters heavily supported the Democratic candidate over the tax-and-social-programs-cutting Republican candidate in 2012.  Clearly, other factors around economic and cultural values outweigh voting based on how much you pay in and get back from the Feds.

The 2012 Presidential 

Alaska to New Jersey

Are you more a city or country person?  Well, this map and the graph below can help you decide where to move.  In 2012 the median number of residents per square mile in the US was about 98 people per square mile.  Alaska on the other hand had just over 1 person pers square mile.  On the other extreme is DC with 9,927 people per square mile and New Jersey with 1,169 people per square mile.

The graph below may help you to better grasp the huge differences between Alaska and New Jersey.  If each of these blue squares is a square mile, then each person symbol represents the number of people per square mile in each of these two states and the median population density for the US as a whole.

Urban America

Four out of five of we Americans live in cities.  In fact, most demographers believe the majority of humans on this planet now live in cities; an amazing shift.  For most of our species' history, most of us have lived in the country; in forests and on farms.  So the growth of huge metropolitan areas in the past century or two is a relatively new experiment among our kind.

This week I begin a re-posting of a series on urban America.  I hope you enjoy it.

Updated Civil Marriage Maps

Today's updated marriage maps show new information.  Now that there is a pending lawsuit seeking civil marriage for same-sex couples in every state, I've moved to showing where civil marriage is already legal (see map below) and an update on current court rulings (see map above).  On the map above the orange color (in North Carolina for example) means a Federal appeals court has issued a pro-marriage ruling for the appellate circuit that includes that state but not specifically on a case from that state.  In the example of North Carolina, the appellate court ruled on a case from Virginia (green).  The appellate circuit, however, includes Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia making similar bans on same-sex marriage in those states also likely unconstitutional.