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What are the most representative — dare we say, most American — states in the nation? And what does that even mean?
Our friend Lenny Bronner, The Washington Post’s tousle-haired political-stats wunderkind, needed an answer. You may recognize Lenny from his vote-night telecast appearances, or maybe from what his LinkedIn page calls the “Stanford Austria Club — Kaffeehauskulturverein.” Regardless, for his election models, Lenny needed to know how well results in one state could predict those in another.
So he churned through Census variables, creating indexes of how similar U.S. states are to one another — whereupon we realized that his work would be perfect for a less important purpose: finding the most typical and most unusual places in America.
Ever the Austrian, Lenny suggested a careful procession through the data. We started with the variable that, other than party identification, best predicts Americans’ votes. We’ll pause here to give you a chance to guess the answer. But — spoiler alert — it’s race.
So which state most closely mirrors the nation as a whole in terms of racial makeup? By mixing metropolis with corn palace, Illinois reigns as the most demographically “normal” state in America.
They then looked at about 30 other values, including religion, income, education and employment mixture and came up with this ranking…
Discuss.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, May 13, 24 @ 11:07 am
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So those who endlessly bash Illinois are really bashing the United States. Well, you can do whatever you want, but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America.
Comment by Golden Monday, May 13, 24 @ 11:16 am
Two initial thoughts: What is a corn palace? And how do Florida and Illinois end up head-to-head in anything?
Comment by Leslie K Monday, May 13, 24 @ 11:22 am
=What is a corn palace?=
An awesome tourist trap right off of I-90 in South Dakota.
Comment by that’s bettor Monday, May 13, 24 @ 11:26 am
First: The Corn Palace is in South Dakota, not Illinois.
To the post, not only are we the closest to normal, most of our legislators and other political leaders regularly drive through Normal on their way to the Capitol.
Comment by Pot calling kettle Monday, May 13, 24 @ 11:39 am
Maybe he mistook Cozy Dog Drive In off Rt 66 for The Corn Palace;)
Comment by Anon221 Monday, May 13, 24 @ 11:48 am
Mitchell, South Dakota has only remaining Corn Palace in the US. However, there were other towns that had a Corn Palace at one time. Bloomington, IL had such a palace in 1915. The onset of World War I saw the demise of most of these as foodstuff was needed for the war effort instead of decorating a building.
Comment by Nearly Normal Monday, May 13, 24 @ 11:54 am
median representation of the whole, would have been a better descriptive phrase to use.
Not one single place in the US is normal right now.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, May 13, 24 @ 11:57 am
[Moaning, Groaning, Wailing, & Gnashing of the teeth by IPI / Eastern Block begins.]
Comment by Anyone Remember Monday, May 13, 24 @ 11:59 am
Well, there is the old saying “Will it play in Peoria?” …
Comment by Cornerfield Monday, May 13, 24 @ 12:13 pm
I agree with the TheInvisableMan. Replace normal with average
Comment by Been There Monday, May 13, 24 @ 12:36 pm
Normal? Or just a split personality that, on average, approximates normal?
Comment by RNUG Monday, May 13, 24 @ 12:40 pm
Well, you can do whatever you want, but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America.=
I see what you did there and I approve.
Comment by JS Mill Monday, May 13, 24 @ 12:43 pm
It’s only a Corn Palace if it’s from the Mitchell region of South Dakota, otherwise it’s just a sparkling grain building.
– MrJM
Comment by @misterjayem Monday, May 13, 24 @ 12:54 pm
= It’s only a Corn Palace if it’s from the Mitchell region of South Dakota, otherwise it’s just a sparkling grain building. =
That reminds me of the saying, “it’s only Malort if it comes from the Malort region of Chicago, otherwise it’s sparkling gasoline”
Comment by cover Monday, May 13, 24 @ 1:45 pm
*nods at RNUG*
Cairo, IL is closer to Georgia than to Chicago, both in terms of driving distance and culture. Something for everyone to keep in mind.
Comment by Former ILSIP Monday, May 13, 24 @ 2:01 pm
Apparently Illinois is only a tiny bit more “normal’ than Florida. Let that sink in.
Comment by Wilson Monday, May 13, 24 @ 3:22 pm
The normal are the ones you don’t yet know…well enough.
Comment by Dotnonymous x Monday, May 13, 24 @ 4:03 pm
Golden - that’s classic!
Comment by Jeremy Rosen Monday, May 13, 24 @ 10:49 pm