Demographics and Socioeconomic Characteristics

of the United States

Hao Xu
Overview
This memo focuses on the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the United States.
The memo uses R programming to conduct univariate analysis of data sourced from the U.S.
Census Bureau, both graphically and numerically, and draws some critical and insightful
findings.

Life Expectancy
Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average time a person is expected to live, based on
the year of his birth, his current age, and other demographic factors. According to the U.S.
Census Bureau, life expectancy in each state of the United States is primarily in the 73 to 80
range. The average life expectancy for all states is 76.18, and the median is 76.

Figure 1 shows the specific values of life expectancy in each state, with different color blocks
representing different states. It can be seen from the figure that the life expectancy of most states
is concentrated between 73 and 75, among which the number of states with a life expectancy of
75 is the highest, with a total of 10.

Poverty Rate
Poverty rate is the percentage of households below the poverty level in each state. According to
the U.S. Census Bureau, the percent ranges from a low of 6.90% (New Hampshire) to a high of
20.80% (Mississippi); the mean for all states is 13.14% and the median is 12.50%.
Figure 2 presents the percentage of households below the poverty level in each state in
descending order. Obviously, the deeper red states have higher poverty rates, while the deeper
green states have lower poverty rates. It can be found that Mississippi, Louisiana and New
Mexico are the top three poor states in the United States.

Households
In terms of the total number of households in each state, there are large gaps between the data.
On average, the total number of households in each state is approximately 2.33 million, with a
median of 1.73 million.

Figure 2 illustrates the total number of households in each state, in descending order. It is
unsurprising to observe that there are significant regional differences in the total number of
households in each state. States in red have considerably more households than those in green.
For example, California, the larger state, has almost 12.9 million households, while Alaska and
Wyoming have just nearly 0.2 million households.

Political Party
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the political parties that control the governorship of each
state are mainly Democrat and Republican. However, a notable exception is Alaska, whose
governorship is independent.

Figure 4 demonstrates the number of states controlled by Democrats and Republicans for
governorships, respectively. The comparison shows that the number of states governed by the
Republican is higher nationally (33 states in total or 64.7%), while the Democratic is at a slight
disadvantage (17 states in total or 33.3%).

Unemployment Rate
The unemployment rate is the percentage of the labor force without a job. According to the U.S.
Census Bureau, the unemployment rate in each state is basically between 2.4% and 7.2%, with
the mean of 4.157% and the median of 4.0%.
However, there is still some variation between different states. According to Figure 5,
unemployment rates are generally high in the states in the red zone and basically low in the states
in the green zone. The three states with higher unemployment rates are Alaska (7.2%), Dist. of
Columbia (6.5%) and New Mexico (6.2%), while the three states with lower unemployment
rates are Colorado (2.5%), Hawaii (2.5%) and North Dakota (2.4%).