I finish grad school this spring. Which means I will have to become a real person. Which also means I’m currently in the midst of a job search. As if this weren’t stressful enough, I also have the daunting task of figuring out where I want to live for the next few years. I was thinking about this while sitting through a lecture on Utility Analysis of Healthcare Decisions last Friday and think I came up with a fool proof method. My conclusion: Delaware is the worst place to live in the US (from a completely unbiased, 23 year old, male perspective). When it comes down to it, my criteria for choosing a place to live boil down to the following:
- Price of Beer
- Attractiveness of Women
- Cost of Living
- Weather
- Music Entertainment
- Sports Entertainment
Average Pint of Beer Price by State | ||
Rank | State | Price/Pint |
1 | South Dakota | $1.66 |
2 | Arkansas | $1.75 |
3 | West Virginia | $1.87 |
4 | Mississippi | $2.26 |
5 | Iowa | $2.32 |
6 | Kentucky | $2.34 |
7 | Nebraska | $2.41 |
8 | Wisconsin | $2.44 |
9 | Illinois | $2.45 |
11 | Missouri | $2.48 |
11 | Kansas | $2.48 |
12 | Ohio | $2.52 |
13 | Michigan | $2.56 |
15 | Virginia | $2.64 |
15 | South Carolina | $2.64 |
16 | Pennsylvania | $2.66 |
17 | North Dakota | $2.73 |
18 | Texas | $2.76 |
19 | New Mexico | $2.77 |
20 | Maine | $2.78 |
21 | Montana | $2.81 |
22 | Florida | $2.84 |
23 | Utah | $2.87 |
24 | Tennessee | $2.89 |
25 | Arizona | $2.91 |
26 | North Carolina | $2.92 |
27 | New York | $2.93 |
28 | Louisiana | $2.99 |
29 | New Hampshire | $3.01 |
30 | Indiana | $3.04 |
31 | Minnesota | $3.05 |
32 | Alabama | $3.08 |
33 | Hawaii | $3.10 |
34 | Maryland | $3.19 |
35 | Vermont | $3.30 |
36 | Washington | $3.34 |
37 | Georgia | $3.46 |
38 | Oregon | $3.57 |
39 | California | $3.58 |
42 | Alaska | $3.71 |
42 | Oklahoma | $3.71 |
42 | Rhode Island | $3.71 |
43 | New Jersey | $3.75 |
45 | Massachusetts | $3.86 |
45 | Colorado | $3.86 |
46 | Delaware | $4.12 |
47 | Connecticut | $4.29 |
48 | Nevada | $4.43 |
49 | Idaho | no data available |
50 | Wyoming | no data available |
1. Price of Beer
Beer currently constitutes a healthy chunk of my monthly credit card bill and, although I hope this spending will decrease when I become a real person, I’m sure it won’t disappear completely. On Pintprice.com, users submit beer prices from cities all over the world and I was able to obtain hundreds of pint prices from US cities and calculate a per state average.
Limitations: Reporting of average pint price is voluntary, and therefore the sample size isn’t consistent; no data is available for Idaho and Wyoming (people must not drink there); the website didn’t indicate the recency of any of the prices. Assumptions: Any submitted beer price <$1 was an outlier and therefore thrown out.
America’s Health Ratings by State | ||
Rank | State | % Dev. from US Norm |
1 | Vermont | 24.8 |
2 | Hawaii | 21.6 |
3 | New Hampshire | 19.9 |
4 | Minnesota | 18.8 |
5 | Utah | 18.2 |
6 | Massachusetts | 17.7 |
7 | Connecticut | 17.5 |
8 | Idaho | 16.1 |
9 | Maine | 15.3 |
10 | Washington | 14.9 |
11 | Rhode Island | 14 |
12 | North Dakota | 12.5 |
13 | Nebraska | 12 |
14 | Wyoming | 11.8 |
15 | Iowa | 11.6 |
16 | Oregon | 11.3 |
17 | Wisconsin | 10.3 |
18 | New Jersey | 9.8 |
19 | Colorado | 9.7 |
20 | Virginia | 9 |
21 | South Dakota | 7.5 |
22 | Kansas | 6.7 |
23 | Montana | 6.5 |
24 | California | 5.3 |
25 | New York | 3.8 |
26 | Maryland | 3.4 |
27 | Michigan | 2 |
28 | Pennsylvania | 2 |
29 | New Mexico | 1.7 |
30 | Alaska | 1.3 |
31 | Illinois | 0.8 |
32 | Ohio | 0.7 |
33 | Arizona | 0.4 |
34 | Indiana | -0.6 |
35 | Delaware | -1.6 |
36 | North Carolina | -3.2 |
37 | Kentucky | -3.6 |
38 | Missouri | -4.9 |
39 | West Virginia | -5 |
40 | Alabama | -7 |
41 | Georgia | -7.8 |
42 | Nevada | -7.9 |
43 | Arkansas | -8.1 |
44 | Oklahoma | -8.1 |
45 | Florida | -8.9 |
46 | Texas | -9 |
47 | Tennessee | -9.7 |
48 | South Carolina | -10.7 |
49 | Mississippi | -15 |
50 | Louisiana | -15.2 |
2. Attractiveness of Women
Since I’m single, this is an important one since I’m likely to date some ladies in my new home town and attractiveness would be a plus. Also, my stock is probably only going down at this point. I figured that a decent predictor of female attractiveness in my hypothetical new state would be America’s Health Ratings. The data is expressed as a percent deviation from the national norm.
3. Cost of Living
In addition to beer prices being reasonable, since I’ll likely buy things other than beer once in a while, a low overall cost of living would probably be nice. The US Government’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), although not exactly cost of living, is a pretty good indicator of this.
Consumer Price Index (CPI) by State | ||
Rank | State | Consumer Price Index (CPI) |
1 | Arizona | 117.335 |
4 | Maryland | 140.810 |
4 | Virginia | 140.810 |
4 | West Virginia | 140.810 |
5 | Alaska | 190.032 |
6 | Texas | 196.175 |
7 | Missouri | 198.261 |
8 | Kentucky | 198.945 |
9 | Kansas | 199.152 |
10 | Ohio | 199.752 |
11 | Indiana | 200.244 |
12 | Wisconsin | 200.999 |
13 | Georgia | 203.351 |
14 | Michigan | 204.673 |
15 | Florida | 204.955 |
19 | Iowa | 205.632 |
19 | Nebraska | 205.632 |
19 | North Dakota | 205.632 |
19 | South Dakota | 205.632 |
20 | Minnesota | 206.167 |
21 | Colorado | 207.444 |
29 | Alabama | 209.000 |
29 | Arkansas | 209.000 |
29 | Louisiana | 209.000 |
29 | Mississippi | 209.000 |
29 | North Carolina | 209.000 |
29 | Oklahoma | 209.000 |
29 | South Carolina | 209.000 |
29 | Tennessee | 209.000 |
30 | Pennsylvania | 210.468 |
31 | Illinois | 211.441 |
32 | Oregon | 214.102 |
38 | Idaho | 219.884 |
38 | Montana | 219.884 |
38 | Nevada | 219.884 |
38 | New Mexico | 219.884 |
38 | Utah | 219.884 |
38 | Wyoming | 219.884 |
39 | Delaware | 226.039 |
40 | Washington | 227.138 |
42 | Rhode Island | 230.883 |
42 | Vermont | 230.883 |
43 | New Jersey | 232.161 |
46 | Maine | 233.018 |
46 | Massachusetts | 233.018 |
46 | New Hampshire | 233.018 |
47 | Connecticut | 235.650 |
48 | New York | 238.282 |
49 | California | 421.605 |
50 | Hawaii | 627.870 |
Assumptions: I would live near a large city in each state (since CPI represents urban areas). Limitations: If no CPI state data was available, I took regional average (shown above in italic).
Average Days of Sunshine by State | ||
Rank | State | Average Days/Year |
1 | Arizona | 90.0 |
2 | Nevada | 79.0 |
3 | New Mexico | 71.0 |
4 | Colorado | 72.7 |
5 | California | 74.8 |
6 | Utah | 66.0 |
7 | Florida | 69.3 |
8 | Kansas | 65.8 |
9 | Arkansas | 68.3 |
10 | Wyoming | 67.3 |
11 | Texas | 69.8 |
12 | Oklahoma | 61.0 |
13 | Idaho | 63.0 |
14 | Louisiana | 63.0 |
15 | Nebraska | 63.5 |
16 | South Dakota | 64.0 |
17 | Georgia | 63.3 |
18 | Mississippi | 63.0 |
19 | South Carolina | 62.0 |
20 | Virginia | 62.3 |
21 | North Carolina | 62.5 |
22 | Iowa | 62.0 |
23 | Hawaii | 61.3 |
24 | North Dakota | 60.0 |
25 | Montana | 58.8 |
26 | Missouri | 58.5 |
27 | Tennessee | 58.0 |
28 | Alabama | 58.3 |
29 | Rhode Island | 58.0 |
30 | Indiana | 57.3 |
31 | Illinois | 57.4 |
32 | Kentucky | 58.5 |
33 | Maine | 57.0 |
34 | Maryland | 57.0 |
35 | Connecticut | 56.0 |
36 | New Jersey | 56.0 |
37 | Massachusetts | 57.0 |
38 | Minnesota | 58.0 |
39 | Wisconsin | 56.7 |
40 | Pennsylvania | 55.5 |
41 | New York | 53.8 |
42 | Ohio | 52.2 |
43 | Michigan | 51.3 |
44 | Vermont | 49.0 |
45 | Oregon | 48.0 |
46 | Washington | 49.8 |
47 | New Hampshire | 44.0 |
48 | West Virginia | 40.0 |
49 | Alaska | 38.3 |
50 | Delaware | no data available |
4. Weather
Living in Wisconsin can be rough and when Winter seems to span from September until May during some years, it’s hard not to think about places like California and Florida. Living in a place that has nicer weather that Wisconsin would probably improve my well-being (especially during January and February). To analyze weather by state, I used the National Climate Data Center’s Average Percent of Possible Sunshine data.
Number of Concerts by State | ||
Rank | State | Concerts |
1 | Missouri | 2053 |
2 | California | 2048 |
3 | New York | 1439 |
4 | Illinois | 1207 |
5 | Florida | 696 |
6 | Ohio | 684 |
7 | Pennsylvania | 663 |
8 | Massachusetts | 646 |
9 | Nevada | 612 |
10 | Texas | 587 |
11 | Washington | 511 |
12 | Michigan | 439 |
13 | Minnesota | 362 |
14 | New Jersey | 313 |
15 | Virginia | 303 |
16 | Maryland | 274 |
17 | Colorado | 265 |
18 | Georgia | 250 |
19 | Arizona | 223 |
20 | Louisiana | 214 |
21 | Tennessee | 197 |
22 | Oregon | 187 |
23 | North Carolina | 185 |
24 | Kentucky | 152 |
25 | Indiana | 139 |
26 | Wisconsin | 133 |
27 | Mississippi | 130 |
28 | Iowa | 102 |
29 | Connecticut | 79 |
30 | South Carolina | 67 |
31 | Alabama | 64 |
32 | Idaho | 58 |
33 | Kansas | 57 |
34 | New Mexico | 57 |
35 | Nebraska | 25 |
36 | West Virginia | 25 |
37 | Rhode Island | 23 |
38 | North Dakota | 19 |
39 | New Hampshire | 11 |
40 | Arkansas | 10 |
41 | South Dakota | 9 |
42 | Oklahoma | 8 |
43 | Wyoming | 7 |
44 | Hawaii | 6 |
45 | Maine | 5 |
46 | Alaska | 3 |
48 | Delaware | 2 |
48 | Vermont | 2 |
50 | Montana | 1 |
50 | Utah | 1 |
5. Music Entertainment
Entertainment offered is crucial to having a social life outside of work and since I like concerts, plays, and especially Neil Diamond, I felt I needed to include this factor. If cost of living is low, but there is nothing worthwhile to spend my extra money on anyway, I might as well just move back in with my parents. To try to represent how many concerts are offered in each state, on 9-27-09, I searched ticketmaster.com for musical events in each state.
6. Sports Entertainment
Another important entertainment factor is how many sporting events I will be able to attend. Therefore, I included in my analysis the total number of major professional sports teams in each state.
Pro Sports Teams by State | ||
Rank | State | Pro Sports Teams |
1 | California | 18 |
3 | New York | 10 |
3 | Texas | 10 |
4 | Florida | 9 |
5 | Pennsylvania | 8 |
7 | Maryland | 7 |
7 | Ohio | 7 |
9 | Illinois | 6 |
9 | Missouri | 6 |
11 | Colorado | 5 |
11 | Massachusetts | 5 |
16 | Arizona | 4 |
16 | Georgia | 4 |
16 | Michigan | 4 |
16 | Minnesota | 4 |
16 | Wisconsin | 4 |
19 | North Carolina | 3 |
19 | Tennessee | 3 |
19 | Washington | 3 |
24 | Indiana | 2 |
24 | Louisiana | 2 |
24 | New Jersey | 2 |
24 | Oregon | 2 |
24 | Utah | 2 |
25 | Oklahoma | 1 |
Assumptions: Since I would rather watch Wisconsin Badger football or basketball over any professional sport, I added an additional professional sport to Wisconsin’s total. For geographic purposes, I included Washington D.C. as a part of Maryland. Also, this data assumes that I care about the NBA. In reality, in the last decade, I have really only attended pro football and baseball games.
Results
To compare results across the six criteria, I linearly transformed the data to a 0 to 100 scale. The equation to obtain this new score is shown at right. If low values were preferred instead of high values (such as price of beer and CPI), the result was subtracted from one before multiplying by 100. After applying this transformation to the data, the following scores result.
State | Price of Beer Score |
Attractive Women Score |
CPI Score |
Sunshine Score |
Concerts Score |
Pro Sports Score |
AVERAGE SCORE |
|
California |
30.8
|
51.3
|
40.4
|
73.0
|
99.8
|
100.0
|
65.9
|
|
Missouri |
70.5
|
25.8
|
84.1
|
44.0
|
100.0
|
33.3
|
59.6
|
|
New York |
54.1
|
47.5
|
76.3
|
28.1
|
70.1
|
55.6
|
55.3
|
|
Arizona |
54.8
|
39.0
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
10.8
|
22.2
|
54.5
|
|
Illinois |
71.3
|
40.0
|
81.6
|
41.3
|
58.8
|
33.3
|
54.4
|
|
Texas |
60.2
|
15.5
|
84.6
|
59.0
|
28.6
|
55.6
|
50.6
|
|
Florida |
57.3
|
15.8
|
82.8
|
62.6
|
33.9
|
50.0
|
50.4
|
|
Pennsylvania |
64.0
|
43.0
|
81.8
|
33.5
|
32.3
|
44.4
|
49.8
|
|
Utah |
56.3
|
83.5
|
79.9
|
64.8
|
0.0
|
11.1
|
49.3
|
|
Minnesota |
49.9
|
85.0
|
82.6
|
37.0
|
17.6
|
22.2
|
49.1
|
|
South Dakota |
100.0
|
56.8
|
82.7
|
54.1
|
0.4
|
0
|
49.0
|
|
Ohio |
68.8
|
39.8
|
83.9
|
28.0
|
33.3
|
38.9
|
48.8
|
|
Virginia |
64.5
|
60.5
|
95.4
|
49.1
|
14.7
|
0
|
47.4
|
|
Wisconsin |
71.8
|
63.8
|
83.6
|
34.9
|
6.4
|
22.2
|
47.1
|
|
Nebraska |
73.0
|
68.0
|
82.7
|
54.6
|
1.2
|
0
|
46.6
|
|
Colorado |
20.5
|
62.3
|
82.4
|
73.3
|
12.9
|
27.8
|
46.5
|
|
Maryland |
44.7
|
46.5
|
95.4
|
40.2
|
13.3
|
38.9
|
46.5
|
|
Iowa |
76.3
|
67.0
|
82.7
|
47.7
|
4.9
|
0
|
46.4
|
|
Massachusetts |
20.6
|
82.3
|
77.3
|
37.0
|
31.4
|
27.8
|
46.1
|
|
Kansas |
70.4
|
54.8
|
84.0
|
60.0
|
2.7
|
0
|
45.3
|
|
New Mexico |
59.9
|
42.3
|
79.9
|
79.7
|
2.7
|
0
|
44.1
|
|
Michigan |
67.6
|
43.0
|
82.9
|
24.9
|
21.3
|
22.2
|
43.7
|
|
Idaho |
no data available
|
78.3
|
79.9
|
56.2
|
2.8
|
0
|
43.4
|
|
North Dakota |
61.3
|
69.3
|
82.7
|
45.6
|
0.9
|
0
|
43.3
|
|
Arkansas |
96.7
|
17.8
|
82.0
|
59.8
|
0.4
|
0
|
42.8
|
|
Maine |
59.5
|
76.3
|
77.3
|
41.3
|
0.2
|
0
|
42.4
|
|
Washington |
39.3
|
75.3
|
78.5
|
14.6
|
24.9
|
16.7
|
41.5
|
|
Wyoming |
no data available
|
67.5
|
79.9
|
59.8
|
0.3
|
0
|
41.5
|
|
Vermont |
40.7
|
100.0
|
77.8
|
24.2
|
0.0
|
0
|
40.5
|
|
North Carolina |
54.6
|
30.0
|
82.0
|
48.4
|
9.0
|
16.7
|
40.1
|
|
Montana |
58.6
|
54.3
|
79.9
|
45.0
|
0.0
|
0
|
39.6
|
|
Kentucky |
75.5
|
29.0
|
84.0
|
41.3
|
7.4
|
0
|
39.5
|
|
Indiana |
50.0
|
36.5
|
83.8
|
42.7
|
6.7
|
11.1
|
38.5
|
|
New Jersey |
24.6
|
62.5
|
77.5
|
39.1
|
15.2
|
11.1
|
38.3
|
|
New Hampshire |
51.2
|
87.8
|
77.3
|
12.5
|
0.5
|
0
|
38.2
|
|
Georgia |
35.0
|
18.5
|
83.2
|
53.4
|
12.1
|
22.2
|
37.4
|
|
Tennessee |
55.5
|
13.8
|
82.0
|
44.0
|
9.6
|
16.7
|
36.9
|
|
Rhode Island |
25.9
|
73.0
|
77.8
|
43.4
|
1.1
|
0
|
36.9
|
|
Oregon |
31.1
|
66.3
|
81.0
|
22.1
|
9.1
|
11.1
|
36.8
|
|
Mississippi |
78.3
|
0.5
|
82.0
|
53.0
|
6.3
|
0
|
36.7
|
|
West Virginia |
92.4
|
25.5
|
95.4
|
5.0
|
1.2
|
0
|
36.6
|
|
South Carolina |
64.4
|
11.3
|
82.0
|
52.7
|
3.2
|
0
|
35.6
|
|
Louisiana |
51.8
|
0.0
|
82.0
|
56.2
|
10.4
|
11.1
|
35.3
|
|
Nevada |
0.0
|
18.3
|
79.9
|
82.4
|
29.8
|
0
|
35.1
|
|
Connecticut |
5.0
|
81.8
|
76.8
|
39.1
|
3.8
|
0
|
34.4
|
|
Alabama |
48.7
|
20.5
|
82.0
|
43.4
|
3.1
|
0
|
32.9
|
|
Oklahoma |
25.9
|
17.8
|
82.0
|
58.4
|
0.3
|
5.6
|
31.7
|
|
Hawaii |
48.1
|
92.0
|
0.0
|
46.1
|
0.2
|
0
|
31.1
|
|
Alaska |
25.9
|
41.3
|
85.8
|
0.0
|
0.1
|
0
|
25.5
|
|
Delaware |
11.1
|
34.0
|
78.7
|
no data available
|
0.0
|
0
|
24.8
|
In averaging the six criteria (instead of using a weighted average with importance ratings for each criteria) to calculate my overall state ranking, I’m assuming that they are of equal importance. In reality, living somewhere with cheap beer is probably much more important than living somewhere with attractive women. So there you have it. It looks like I’ll be applying as much as possible in California, while avoiding Delaware like the plague. Feel free to suggest any additional criteria that you think I should have included in my analysis.
Update 10-5-09: The complete data that I used to reach these results can be found here.
I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate here and poke some holes in your logic. Some of your statistics ingore the fact that not all states are of equal size. California may have 2048 more concerts than delaware, but it is also 83.8 times larger (in square mileage) than Delaware. In fairness, you should include some of the neighboring states data in Delaware’s numbers. Similarly, the sunshine data is a little misleading. With a state that size, you’re bound to see sunshine SOMEWHERE in the state nearly every day. What about pro teams? Shouldn’t you factor in the quality of the teams? In California, you have jokes like the Clippers and the Raiders. Should those teams even count? In Delaware, you have the following high quality teams within a radius well covered by the size of California: Yankees, Eagles, Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics, New York Giants, Steelers. The only team decent team in California worth watching is the Lakers. But they play in LA where there is 0% sunshine days on account of the smog.
Nevertheless, great post!
Thanks for the feedback, Mike – as UW’s George Box once said, “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” If you’re interested, I posted a link to my complete data above. The state size point is a good one, but much of the data is only on a state level, not more local. The sunshine data is actually average percentage of sunshine, so in the case of California, I averaged results from seven different cities. The athletics point is very true since in reality, I would never really want to go to any of those games. Maybe I should factor in the additional cost of flights back to see the badgers play if I live far away from Madison.
Let me prefix this post with a full disclosure…obviously I’m supporting your move to Colorado. That said…
Does quality of beer play any part in your beer drinking? From this post I’d assume you pretty much consume Olympia Ice? For example, Colorado has more breweries per capita than any state in the US. With that high number of micro brews, obviously the price of beer as a whole would be higher, but if you institute a cost/quality ratio I’d feel pretty good about where CO sits.
Also I’d like to challenge your healthiest state rankings. That pole takes into account factors such as the rate of women’s prenatal care, immunization coverage, and prevalence of binge drinking. I would assume these factors don’t apply to your best interests of meeting attractive women? May I suggest either obesity rankings or most active state rankings?
Finally, any poll with Texas ranked so high needs some adjustments!
http://calorielab.com/news/2008/07/02/fattest-states-2008/
http://www.myfittribe.com/articles/20071229/most-active-states.html
http://www.colorado.com/Breweries.aspx
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I was definitely interested in reading this blog, after doing some research on demographics in Delaware and seeing the heading pop up in my search results… I currently reside in the “small wonder” state of Delaware. I definitely agree that it ranks lowest on the list of states I’ve lived in in my life (others include: New York, Maine, Vermont, Colorado and California). Bottom line: unless you like suburban sprawl and strip malls, prefer zero night life, very little social interaction or cultural activity and have a penchant for crap weather (too cold in winter, too hot and humid in summer), do NOT ever even visit this little hell hole. California definitely ranks #1 in my book. I lived there for 8 years, which is the longest I’ve lived anywhere. While I’ve been through a lot of the vast country of CA I settled in San Diego, and that’s where my heart still is. Colorado is fun, but I didn’t stay long, too much snow. You’re young though, have fun, see it all, except Delaware.
I hardly write responses, but i did some searching and wound up here Delaware:
Statistically the worst place to live | Putting Out the Vibe.
And I do have 2 questions for you if it’s allright. Is it simply me or does it look as if like a few of these remarks look like they are left
by brain dead people? 😛 And, if you are writing on other social sites, I’d like to keep up with anything new you have to post.
Would you list of the complete urls of all your social pages like your linkedin profile, Facebook page
or twitter feed?