Here's how we figured out how 'average' each state is

We recently ranked all 50 US states and Washington, DC based on how average each state was. Here's how we did it.We took 38social, economic, and demographic measures, mostly from the 2015 American Community Survey one-year estimates recently released by the Census Bureau, accessed via the American FactFinder tool. The full list of measures is at the bottom of this post.For each measure, we took the average value of the measure across all fifty states and the District of Columbia. Then, we found how far away from that average each state was along a normalized scale. (Formally, we found the absolute value of the z-score for each state on each measure.) Finally, to get an overall sense of how far from average a state was, we added together those distances for each state, and ranked them on that combined index.Here are the measures we used in the ranking. Unless otherwise noted, the data for each came from the above mentioned 2015 American Community Survey:Basic demographicsPopulationSex (Percent male)Median ageRace and ethnicityThe Census Bureau has for the last several years defined Hispanic or Latino as an ethnicity, rather than a separate racial grouping. This is reflected in the categories below:Percent non-Hispanic white alonePercentnon-Hispanicblack or African American alonePercentnon-HispanicAmerican Indian/Alaska Native alonePercentnon-HispanicAsian alonePercentnon-HispanicHawaiian/Pacific Islander alonePercentnon-Hispanic,some other race alonePercentnon-Hispanic, two or more racesPercent Hispanic, any raceMarriage and childrenPercent of households made up of families with their own children under 18Average household sizePercent of males over the age of 15 who are currently married and not separatedPercent of females over the age of 15 who are currently married and not separatedNumber of births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 50Education and military experiencePercent with at least a high school diplomaPercent with at least a bachelor's degreePercent of population who are civilian veteransHealthPercent with at least one disabilityPercent with health insuranceMobility and transportationPercent who moved homes in the last yearMean work commute timePercent with access to at least one carNativity and languagePercent born outside the USPercent speaking a language other than English at homeAccess to technologyPercent with a computer at homePercent with a broadband internet connection at homeIncome and economyMedian household incomePoverty rateAugust 2016 unemployment rate (from Bureau of Labor Statistics)Q1 2016Gross Domestic Product per capita (from Bureau of Economic Analysis)HousingHousing unit vacancy ratePercent of housing units that are single family detached housesPercent of housing units builtsince 2000Median home valueMedian monthly cost for a homeowner with a mortgageMedian gross monthly apartment rentSEE ALSO:22 maps that explain AmericaJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: FEMA is tracking Hurricane Matthew using the 'Waffle House Index
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