A number of people suggested that my United States passport ownership map wasn't measuring passport ownership as I thought, but income.
With a little data analysis, it turns out they are right. Below is the scatter graph of median income vs percent passport ownership:
(By the way, does anyone know how to label the points in a scatter plot on Google Spreadsheets?)
The correlation analysis gives 0.86 – just about as correlated as you ever see real-world results.
The full data as follows:
State |
Median Income |
Rank |
MARYLAND |
$69,272 |
1 |
NEW JERSEY |
$68,342 |
2 |
CONNECTICUT |
$67,034 |
3 |
ALASKA |
$66,953 |
4 |
HAWAII |
$64,098 |
5 |
MASSACHUSETTS |
$64,081 |
6 |
NEW HAMPSHIRE |
$60,567 |
7 |
VIRGINIA |
$59,330 |
8 |
DELAWARE |
$59,290 |
9 |
CALIFORNIA |
$58,931 |
10 |
WASHINGTON |
$56,548 |
11 |
MINNESOTA |
$55,616 |
12 |
COLORADO |
$55,430 |
13 |
UTAH |
$55,117 |
14 |
NEW YORK |
$54,659 |
15 |
RHODE ISLAND |
$54,119 |
16 |
ILLINOIS |
$53,966 |
17 |
NEVADA |
$53,341 |
18 |
WYOMING |
$52,664 |
19 |
VERMONT |
$51,618 |
20 |
WISCONSIN |
$49,993 |
21 |
PENNSYLVANIA |
$49,520 |
22 |
ARIZONA |
$48,745 |
23 |
OREGON |
$48,457 |
24 |
TEXAS |
$48,259 |
25 |
IOWA |
$48,044 |
26 |
NORTH DAKOTA |
$47,827 |
27 |
KANSAS |
$47,817 |
28 |
GEORGIA |
$47,590 |
29 |
NEBRASKA |
$47,357 |
30 |
MAINE |
$45,734 |
31 |
INDIANA |
$45,424 |
32 |
OHIO |
$45,395 |
33 |
MICHIGAN |
$45,255 |
34 |
MISSOURI |
$45,229 |
35 |
SOUTH DAKOTA |
$45,043 |
36 |
IDAHO |
$44,926 |
37 |
FLORIDA |
$44,736 |
38 |
NORTH CAROLINA |
$43,674 |
39 |
NEW MEXICO |
$43,028 |
40 |
LOUISIANA |
$42,492 |
41 |
SOUTH CAROLINA |
$42,442 |
42 |
MONTANA |
$42,322 |
43 |
TENNESSEE |
$41,725 |
44 |
OKLAHOMA |
$41,664 |
45 |
ALABAMA |
$40,489 |
46 |
KENTUCKY |
$40,072 |
47 |
ARKANSAS |
$37,823 |
48 |
WEST VIRGINIA |
$37,435 |
49 |
MISSISSIPPI |
$36,646 |
50 |
Data from the United States Census Bureau.