Assembling the USA state-by-state with state-level statistics

Posted In: Maps

Watch the United States assemble state by state based on statistics of interest

Based on earlier popularity of the country-by-country animation, this map lets you watch as the world is built-up one state at a time. This can be done along a large range of statistical dimensions:

Name (alphabetical)

abbreviation

Date of entry to the United States

State Population (2018)

Population per Electoral Vote (2018)

Population per House Seat (2018)

Land Area (square miles)

Population Density (ppl per sq mi) (2018)

State’s Highest Point

Highest Elevation (ft)

Mean Elevation (ft)

State’s Lowest Point

Lowest Point (ft)

Life Expectancy at Birth (yrs)

Median Age (yrs)

Percent with High School Education

Percent with Bachelor’s Degree

Residential Electricity Price (cents per kWh) (2018)

Gasoline Price ($/gal) Regular unleaded (2019)

State Gross Domestic Product GDP ($Million) (2018)

GDP per capita ($/capita)

Number of Counties (or subdivisions)

Average Daily Solar Radiation (kWh/m2)

Birth rate (per thousand population)

Avg Age of Mother at Birth

Annual Precipitation (in/yr)

Average Temperature (deg F)

These statistics can be sorted from small to large or vice versa to get a view of the US and its constituent states plus DC in a unique and interesting way. It’s a bit hypnotic to watch as the states appear and add to the country one by one.

You can use this map to display all the states that have higher life expectancy than the Texas:
select “Life expectancy”, sort from “high to low” and use the scroll bar to move to the Texax and you’ll get a picture like this:
States with higher life expectancy than Texas

or this map to display all the states that have higher population density than California:
select “Population density, sort from “high to low” and use the scroll bar to move to the United States and you’ll get a picture like this:
States with higher population density than California

I hope you enjoy exploring the United States through a number of different demographic, economic and physical characteristics through this data viz tool. And if you have ideas for other statistics to add, I will try to do so.

Data and tools: Data was downloaded from a variety of sources:

Population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories_of_the_United_States_by_population
Admission to union https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_date_of_admission_to_the_Union
Educational attainment https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_104.88.asp
Highest points https://geology.com/state-high-points.shtml
Life expectancy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_life_expectancy
Median Age http://www.statemaster.com/graph/peo_med_age-people-median-age
Land area https://statesymbolsusa.org/symbol-official-item/national-us/uncategorized/states-size
Mean elevation https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2011/compendia/statab/131ed/geography-environment.html
Electricity price https://www.chooseenergy.com/electricity-rates-by-state/
Gasoline price https://gasprices.aaa.com/state-gas-price-averages/
GDP https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gdp-state
Sunlight North America Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) Daily Sunlight (insolation) for years 1979-2011 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released 2013. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/NASA-INSOLAR.html on Jun 14, 2019 1:37:15 PM
Births United States Department of Health and Human Services (US DHHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Division of Vital Statistics, Natality public-use data 2007-2017, on CDC WONDER Online Database, October 2018. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/natality-current.html on Jun 14, 2019 1:53:58 PM
Precipitation North America Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) Daily Precipitation for years 1979-2011 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released 2013. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/NASA-Precipitation.html on Jun 26, 2019 3:30:40 PM
Temperature http://www.usa.com/rank/us–average-temperature–state-rank.htm