The question is, though, would you rather be a resident of a representative state? I wonder, if you polled folks from each state ahead of time about how much they thought it would be a good thing to be most representative of the U.S. population when it came to things like population density and home ownership rates (numbers that are going to leave extremely rural states and those with old-growth large cities on the outs). I would bet that, on average, folks would tend toward the condition of their state (e.g. folks in Hawaii would not consider it a good thing while folks in Michigan would).
The most 'representative' state: Wisconsin
By Mark Preston
CNN Political Editor
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Looking for a state that is a microcosm of the whole country? You won't find it in Iowa or New Hampshire -- there are 25 states that come closer to average statewide measures on important characteristics such as race and income.
[...]
Holland identified 12 key statistics -- four that measure race and ethnicity, four that look at income and education, and four that describe the typical neighborhood in each state -- and added up how far each was from the figures for the average state on each measure.
Holland said he chose these 12 different categories because "they have a strong impact on the political landscape in every state."
Close behind Wisconsin are four other Midwestern states that look most like a hypothetical average state -- Missouri, Kansas, Indiana and Ohio. Most of the least-typical states tend to come from the Northeast, including Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. West Virginia is in 49th place, while Mississippi comes in dead last.
[...]
So, what makes Wisconsin so special -- or, to put it another way, what makes Wisconsin so average? It is about as close to the average state as you can get on most of the 12 measures included in this study.
"It's important to note that there are hundreds of ways of making this same calculation, and dozens of states could all make a legitimate claim to being the most representative state in the nation," Holland said.
To make the calculations easier to understand, Holland recalculated each state's score to produce a zero-to-50 scale -- there are 50 states, after all -- with a high score indicating a state that is more representative than a state with a lower score.
A ranking of the 50 states
1. Wisconsin 36.4
2. Missouri 35.2
3. Kansas 34.4
4. Indiana 30.8
5. Ohio 30.1
6. Oklahoma 29.9
7. Oregon 29.3
8. Nebraska 29.0
9. Georgia 27.3
10. Minnesota 26.9
11. Michigan 26.8
12. Washington 26.3
13. Wyoming 25.9
14. North Carolina 25.8
15. Florida 25.6
16. Montana 25.3
17. Virginia 25.3
18. Alaska 25.1
19. Pennsylvania 25.0
20. Arizona 24.8
21. Delaware 24.1
22. Tennessee 22.3
23. South Dakota 21.4
24. Kentucky 20.3
25. New Mexico 20.3
26. Iowa 19.6
27. Texas 19.6
28. Illinois 19.5
29. Rhode Island 19.0
30. Maryland 18.9
31. Colorado 18.8
32. Louisiana 18.3
33. Idaho 18.1
34. Vermont 17.9
35. Maine 17.4
36. New Hampshire 17.4
37. Utah 17.0
38. Hawaii 16.3
39. South Carolina 15.8
40. California 15.3
41. Arkansas 15.0
42. Alabama 14.6
43. North Dakota 13.8
44. Nevada 13.5
45. Connecticut 13.1
46. Massachusetts 11.6
47. New Jersey 11.4
48. New York 6.5
49. West Virginia 4.8
50. Mississippi 2.8
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BTW, for reasons I will not state explicitly but you could figure out if you thought about it, this post led to a passing along of the associated story to someone who in turn passed it along to several people, including a highly placed person in the National Institutes of Health. I also suspect strongly that this information will be noted in presentations and certain other materials. So, don't say your blog can't make a difference.
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