EDIT: I just want to point out to everyone that while I will continue to approve comments for this post, I no longer reply to it. Feel free to continue to comment, but I won’t be taking part. ALSO, this post is from 2010. Some people seem to be unable to read dates and thus believe that somehow invalidates the information below. It doesn’t.
Further Edit. The New Republic did a great piece comparing and contrasting red states and blue states with updated information for 2012. You can find that article here.
Here is the 2008 election map of red states and blue states:
What I would like to do is go down a list of things like poverty, crime, education, religiosity, suicide rates, obesity, etc.. to see what the top ten states are in each category, then see if those states are conservative or liberal. This should paint a picture of the difference between conservative states and liberal states. A lot of these statisics will be coming from State Master, a neat little site that has all these statistics in one place. So let’s begin, shall we?
- District of Columbia
- Delaware
- Connecticut
- Alaska
- Massachusetts
- Wyoming
- New Jersey
- New York
- Minnesota
- Virginia
Highest percent bellow poverty line (per capita)
- Mississippi
- Louisiana
- New Mexico
- District of Columbia
- Arkansas
- West Virginia
- Kentucky
- Texas
- Alabama
- South Carolina
Looks like on average liberal states are better at economics and keeping poverty down that conservatives states.
- Vermont
- Connecticut
- Massachusetts
- New Jersy
- Maine
- Minnesota
- Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Montana
- New York
- Arizona
- Mississippi
- New Mexico
- Nevada
- California
- Lousiana
- Alaska
- Alabama
- Hawaii
- Tennessee
Liberals also seem to be on average more educated that conservatives.
- Mississippi
- Alaska
- Michigan
- South Carolina
- Kentucky
- Oregon
- District of Columbia
- Illinois
- Rhode Island
- Tennessee
- Hawaii
- Wyomming
- Virginia
- Florida
- North Dakota
- Idaho
- Nebraska
- Alabama
- Vermont
- South Dakota
Looks like unemployment is a problem for everybody, regardless.
- Vermont
- New Hampshire
- Massachussettes
- Minnesota
- Maine
- Iowa
- Utah
- Hawaii
- Nebraska
- Connecticut
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- New Mexico
- Nevada
- Oklahoma
- Texas
- Florida
- South Carolina
- Georgia
- Alabama
People in liberals states are on average healthier than people in conservative states.
- Hawaii
- Wyomming
- Connecticut
- Minnesota
- Delaware
- Vermont
- Massachusetts
- New Jersey
- California
- Michigan
- Texas
- South Dakota
- Colorado
- New Hampshire
- Alabama
- Missouri
- Tennessee
- South Carolina
- Georgia
- Arizona
Liberals pay more taxes than conservatives.
Receive the most federal tax dollars
- District of Columbia
- New Mexico
- Mississippi
- Alaska
- Louisiana
- West Virginia
- North Dakota
- Alabama
- South Dakota
- Kentucky
Receive the least federal tax dollars
- New Jersey
- Nevada
- Connecticut
- New Hampshire
- Minnesota
- Illinois
- Delaware
- California
- New York
- Colorado
Despite the liberals paying the majority of the taxes, the conservatives are the ones taking the most out of the tax pool. This phenomenon is called “Red State Welfare”. Conservatives decry the evils of government and taxes, and then turn around and take the biggest fist full from the cookie jar….way to go hypocrites.
- Wyoming
- Montana
- Alaska
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- Oregon
- Colorado
- Idaho
- West Virginia
- Arizona
- New York
- District of Columbia
- New Jersey
- Massachusetts
- Connecticut
- Rhode Island
- Illinois
- Maryland
- California
- Ohio
Looks like you’re less likely to kill yourself in a liberal state than in a conservative one. I wonder if the general liberal attitude of acceptance and tolerance over the conservative tendency to be repressive and controlling has anything to do with this…
- Texas
- New Mexico
- Mississippi
- Arizona
- District of Columbia
- Arkansas
- Lousiana
- Oklahomoa
- Tennessee
- Georgia
- New Hampshire
- Vermont
- Massachusetts
- Connecticut
- Maine
- New Jersey
- Minnesota
- North Dakota
- New York
- Pennsylvania
In a liberal state you’re less likely to get pregnant as a teenager. Maybe the fact that liberals are better educated and promote the teaching and use of contraception has something to do with this. How’s that abstinence only sex education working out for ya conservatives?
- District of Columbia
- Alaska
- Louisiana
- Wyoming
- Arizona
- Nevada
- Mississippi
- New Mexico
- Arkansas
- Alabama
- Hawaii
- Massachusetts
- Connecticut
- New Jersey
- New York
- Rhode Island
- New Hampshire
- Minnesota
- Maine
- Iowa
Looks like you’re more likely to die in a gun crime in a conservative state than a liberal state.
- Wisconsin
- North Dakota
- Minnesota
- Iowa
- Rhode Island
- Nevada
- Pennsylvania
- Nebraska
- Illinois
- Deleware
- Tennessee
- Utah
- North Carolina
- Kentucky
- West Virginia
- Mississippi
- Arkansas
- Georgia
- Florida
- Idaho
Conservatives win here. It looks like liberals might have a drinking problem…
- Mississippi
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Louisiana
- Tennessee
- South Carolina
- Oklahoma
- North Carolina
- Georgia
- Kentucky
- Vermont
- New Hampshire
- Alaska
- Massachusetts
- Maine
- Connecticut
- Rhode Island
- Colorado
- Oregon
- New York
No surprise here, conservative states are also the most religious, yet despite this they have the highest teen pregnancies, higher gun crimes, lower education, more suicides, more poverty, take the most in federal money, and are the most unhealthy states. Guess that kinda kills the whole “putting our god into government is good”. Looks like the more godless a state is, the better it is to live in. Except for binge drinking, looks like liberal states do a lot of things better than conservative states. No wonder these people want to take the country “back” and not forward.
PS EDIT: found this chart, backs up pretty much the same conclusions. (I can’t seem to get it to format right, but the original pic link is here.
Interesting statistics but not too surprising. Are you sure that California being among the least educated is correct??? That strikes me as very strange.
http://www.wordsfromawoman.wordpress.com
I know you will not respond but it is quite interested all the spelling errors you have in your report. As a clear liberal based report , as yours, being the most educated no matter the color of your map, clearly speaks for itself. Find an uneducated Conservative to help you out with your spelling next time.
*quite interesting
Best not to make spelling/grammar mistakes when trying to correct someone else’s.
And OP, coming from someone who lives in California, I completely understand why we’re #5 in that area. Our schools are disgustingly underfunded.
Yeah, I thought it was odd too <.< Don't know how they compiled those statistics, will have to check. Might just be skewed because of the state's size. The problem with some of these results was that some were "per capita" other were just "totals". I'd prefer if they'd gone ahead and averaged out everything to make all the statistics per capita, would paint a better picture.
Your first two stats (wealth) drive all the rest, though, don’t they?
Also an interesting side point – even though the liberal states are wealthiest, it’s been shown quite conclusively that in all states (regardless of wealth) the poorer people are more likely to vote democrat, and the wealthiest more likely to vote Republican.
Hmmm, that’s really interesting. I can see how that would be so, the wealthy don’t want taxes and don’t want regulations on their corporations, but then I always think of the poor people as voting the way the church tells them to, which is for the rich republicans. Perhaps it could be that while there are poor people who vote for the rich because their religious leaders tell them to, there are many more poor people who would vote democrat but just don’t make it out to the polls.
This use to be the case – yes. But not anymore. FOX “News” changed all of that.
I would like to point out some major flaws in the reasoning behind your points. First, the wealthiest and poorest states. I do not disagree with the fact that most of the deep south states are the poorest, and at the same time conservative. But, I would like to point out that these states have the highest percentages of illegal immigrants, and due to that these sates have to take care of them by federal law but recieve no tax money from these illegal immigrants. Everytime a southern state tries to regulate immigration, the liberals block them and say how it is not the American way. The more liberal states of the north and east coast do not have to deal with this problem. Another good point is that the poorest states in the country is California which is liberal….big surprise that they have a huge problem with illegal immigration as well? That makes a good point of people below the poverty line too. On the other hand binge drinking has nothing to do with being liberal or conservative. If you look at your data the states with the most drinkers have a high German affluent. It is tradition. It would be a good idea to see what group of teenage girls become pregnant, I think you may be surprised. In conclusion your data has no accurate value in any claims you have just made. It was a good try, but before next time I suggest you actually think about what you are writing.
So if we kicked out all the immigrants conservative states would suddenly be doing just as well as liberal states? What about statistics where illegals aren’t factored in, like IQ levels?
Once again, godlesspaladin-fix your report of basic spelling errors before you state IQ levels. You are making your own points false.
I didn’t notice CA on the poorest state list considering the fact its going bankrupt.Baltimore is one of the most crime ridden cities in the US and Maryland is a EXTREMELY far left state.So Is Detroit,MI.But you know what we should do.Raise taxes on all the people who work hard for their money so we can give it to the hookers with 8 kids with 5 different men.Because Liberals know it all.Thats why in 2006 the economy was at it’s best and in 2007 when we elected a Democratic congress WHO WRITES THE BUDGETS.Were in a recession so yeah blame President Bush for that because Congress makes the budgets not the President.And you’ll see this November just how bad the conservative’s are when we take back the congress.Because people are sick of the liberal’s pushing shit down their throat that they don’t want.This is the peoples county not yours.
A) I’m not a fan of taxes, B) That’s a gross over simplification of the economic meltdown. I’d also like to point out that the democrats in congress are complete tools and pussies and give into republican bullying even when they’re in the majority. So even thought he democrats have more votes, the republicans still run the show.
If thats true obamacare wouldn’t have happened.
Actually, if you take the time to check it out, religiosity is strongly correlated with an increase in violence, income disparity, and social sexual problems. The European countries with the highest incident of atheism/agnosticism have higher incomes, and lower crime.
The only problem with this study is that it is based off presidential election results and nothing else. For example, Maine has 2 republican senators, a republican governor, and republicans have the majority in their state house and senate. In Massachusetts, 4 of the last 5 governors were republican. Some of these “liberal” states are not as liberal as stereotyped. As a matter of fact, according to a Gallup poll that came out recently, conservatives out number liberals in all but two of the “liberal” states. So basically, your study is way too simple. I don’t doubt that higher taxes = better education and benefits. But you’re only using one variable which is not very scientific.
Nothing here we didn’t know or suspect . . . but fun anyway.
When considering wealth for a state, you might consider median income adjusted for cost-of-living. With the cost-of-living adjustement, New York moves from 15th from the top to 8th from the bottom.
Texas according to your data has 8th most below the poverty line, but the median income when adjusted for cost-of-living is 12th.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States
If you look at the Pew Research Organization Website( http://pewresearch.org/)you will find statistics basically consistent with these. It’s funny what excuses people will come up with because they don’t want to believe the facts. Even if there are flaws in these statistics, it is not even debatable that liberals are more educated. More education usually means they have better paying jobs, so all the rest of the assumptions can fall into place.
Hello John,n How does it feel to be like the rest of the conservative and look at te facts. You have the same response for everthing that come along that shows what wrong with the conservatives. You jump all over the liberals short comings. You won’t looks and see how being in the middle of the road is the best. You can be conservative on some thing but liberal on others. You have your facts all wrong and you refuse to learn anything. “W” and his useless war in Iran broke put us where we are not. You have to blame the Dem and refuse to look at the GOP faults. Something is bad wrong is less than 1500 people have more wealth than 150 million people at the bottom of this country. The Goverment has stacked the deck against the working poor and the middle class if you even find a middle class now. When the allow them to outlaw unions, minimal wage, workers rights and allow CEO and Big banks to bend us over and give us the greep pickle it our own fault.
I find it interesting how D.C. is labled the most “trigger happy” with the highest stats on firearm death rate. Hey….I thought it was against the law to have guns in DC. Looks like that law is worthless…..gun control works well there now don’t it. Same with the teen pregnancies.. they rank 5…..hummm….must be stupid liberals who have guns and just don’t understand sex education. Must be those great schools they have there in DC…taught by the same A holes that also run the city government. ….all idiots. And you really think it’s going to get better…. It’s that plantation mentality that hasn’t changed in over 100 years. Give them more food stamps, and reward the sex crazed mother with 10 kids and no father with a check and give them more federal assistance to ruin a city that’s already a joke. Liberals just don’t get it and never will.
amen
I didn’t even know that DC was a state. I believe the schools in DC are also under the jurisdiction of the Maryland school system so blame the dipshits in charge of the state DC is a part of moron.
Better watch what you say here……If you state the truth, big brother liberal who runs “Mr. Filter” control, will not post it. Just like they do with the votes they don’t like….they “lose them”. But then again what does the radical left fear the most……the truth.
This is obviously not biased at all.
I would like to point out(and I am not racist)minorities have always been the poorest demographic in the US and these people generally live in the southern region and that would make sense that it would show them as being poorer states and having large amounts of crime due to the poverty. Also this study doesn’t puy into account that the South has ALWAYS been the poorest region even when the South was the Democrats’ strongest voting block, now that they are a republican voting block does not change how impoverished they have been.
It’s awesome how much misinformation is in this thread. Vermont is not the most educated state, New Hampshire is not a liberal state, the suicide information is completely of base, firearm deaths is WAY off, etc. Ton of bad information here, posted by someone with an agenda
Love the arrogance here. The reason for much of this is the high black and hispanic populations in these states. This sadly explains the education, teen pregnancies and receiving tax dollars. Its not a conservative vs. liberal thing. Its a cultural thing. Southern Blacks vote democrat.
How can illinois not lead in gun deaths? Chicago bang bang
@Rob, you’re forgetting many whites live in poverty as well, although I admit blacks and hispanics live in poverty more, however, there’s more of a lack of respect for minorities than there are for whites (hence, the saying goes “white people are privileged”). Conversely, most asians are highly educated because of traditional, conservative family values which correlates well with whites even though asians are marginalized the most in the U.S.
What is also distorted is that the groupings are by state, rather than county. If the analysis is by ounty, then the truth becomes clear – Democrats rule urban areas dominated by poverty and ethnics, Republicans being more educated and wealthier. Even in liberal states, such as California and the northeast, Republicans populate the better areas, and conservative states in the South, Democrats populate the most impoverished areas. Look at the Dem convention – life’s losers.
right only rich people are republican and the poors are all democrats. great observation. too bad the majority of republicans are those uneducated in aforementioned states and they are too retarded to see they vote against their own interests. Love the facts and references you posted keep it up.
I am glad to be a new englander. 5 of the 6 NE states are 1-5 in fewest teen pregnancies. That planned parenthood is the devil!
Great example of rotten statistics. It is well know among those who actually do cross-state statistics that you can’t use states as a methodological tool to correlate other variables, such as political affiliation and wealth, education, etc. There are too many other correlates and confounding factors. Using states as a methodology treats everyone in the state as “the same” statistically. This means urban v rural, individual wealth differences, ethnicity, etc. are all treated homogeneously, which is probably inappropriate from a statistical point of view. What you have here is a very interesting, and in some cases very stark, difference. But it’s not at all inconclusive evidence that political affiliation and policy has any predictive ability regarding the outcomes you measured. For example, all of the wealthiest states you listed are also some of the states with the largest income gap between the rich and the poor. But that’s not controlled for when you just compare states. As someone else mentioned, illegal immigration is also known to influence these statistics and that is not accounted for. Not to mention the other major flaw with this analysis is that you categorize states as “liberal” and “conservative” based on who they voted for president in 2008. Pres. Obama in that year had relatively wide bipartisan appeal and many of the states that voted for him are moderate or have more conservative policies in some cases. So right from the start, your definition of “liberal” and “conservative” is suspect, and that means the entire analysis is garbage. Write this analysis up and send it in to any academic publication and you’ll be rejected so fast your head would spin. There is no statistical validity to what you have argued here. That said, I do think it would be interesting to dig deeper and try to explain the patterns you have identified in a more rigorous and accurate manner.
Unfortunately, some of this also needs to be broken down by race. Sadly it makes a huge difference. Southern states have far more minorities than do the northern states; this makes a difference in gun deaths, health, financial aid, test scores, unemployment, teen pregnancies, etc. When I lived in the northern states, it seemed to be segregated in comparison to my experience in the southern states. I would go many days without even seeing a minority up north, but that is never the case in the southern states. This needs to be recognized because listings like this sometimes seem to be ridiculing minorities.
“In a liberal state you’re less likely to get pregnant as a teenager.”
Uhhh, actually that’s a false state. The link through in the story refers to BIRTH RATE not OVERALL PREGNANCY. If liberals are aborting their babies how does that equate to being less likely to get pregnant?