Ranking America S Fifty States

This full-color book provides a compendium of stimulating facts about the states, presented graphically, and covering a wide array of topics including demographic, economic, environmental, health, and crime variables. Hundreds of attributes are compared side-by-side, from life expectancy to murder rates; from fourth-grade math proficiency scores to the number of food stamp recipients, and from illicit drug use to the rate of firearm background checks per state. Through meticulous organization and use of graphic formats, retrieval of specific information the reader may seek has been greatly facilitated. In addition to the graphs comparing the fifty states for each individual metric, a summary table is provided at the beginning of each chapter along with highlights of pertinent data found in the chapter. While we are one, indivisible nation, at the same time Americans are as diverse from state-to-state as many nations are when compared with other nations. For example: in 2010, 95 percent of Vermont residents were white compared with only 24 percent of residents in Hawaii and 1-in-12 New York residents were Jewish compared with less than 1-in-1,000 Arkansas residents. In Texas, 464 prisoners have been executed over the past 35 years while 16 states have not executed any. More interesting facts found in ranking America's Fifty States include: Alaska ranked highest or lowest in 31 metrics—more than any other state—followed by Mississippi at 25 and Texas at 20. Alaska is the only state that does not have a state income tax or a state sales tax. It had the highest revenues per capita from taxes levied on businesses for the extraction of oil and gas and receives the highest federal aid per capita. Alaska had the lowest percent of households with annual income below $15,000. Over the past decade, over 100 million firearms background checks have been performed nationally, with the highest rate in Utah and the lowest rate in New Jersey Mississippi had the lowest personal income per capita, median household income, gross domestic product per capita, and lowest male life expectancy rate. Additionally, it had the highest food stamp recipient rate, rate of persons below the poverty level, and infant mortality rate. Florida had the highest rate of identity theft victims in 2010 followed by Arizona, California, and Georgia. Texas had the most extreme environmental metrics including the highest major disaster, storm, and wildfire emergency declarations. Texas also had the highest summer air temperature and carbon dioxide emissions level. In addition to extreme environmental metrics, Texas also had the highest property crime rate and high school dropout rate.

Ranks states in terms of income, agricultural and industrial production, mortality rates, college graduates, divorce, debt, population change, highway fatalities, and taxes.

Assesses the quality of life in the states using 125 statistical categories, such as terrain, resources, environment, health, racial equality, arts, business, transportation, and public safety. Each state is rated in every area and ranked from best to worst. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Providing chronologies of important events, historical narratives from the first settlement to the present, and biographies of major figures, this work offers readers an unseen look at the history of racism from the perspective of individual states. From the initial impact of European settlement on indigenous populations to the racial divides caused by immigration and police shootings in the 21st century, each American state has imposed some form of racial restriction on its residents. The United States proclaims a belief in freedom and justice for all, but members of various minority racial groups have often faced a different reality, as seen in such examples as the forcible dispossession of indigenous peoples during the Trail of Tears, Jim Crow laws' crushing discrimination of blacks, and the manifest unfairness of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Including the District of Columbia, the 51 entries in these two volumes cover the state-specific histories of all of the major minority and immigrant groups in the United States, including African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. Every state has had a unique experience in attempting to build a community comprising multiple racial groups, and the chronologies, narratives, and biographies that compose the entries in this collection explore the consequences of racism from states' perspectives, revealing distinct new insights into their respective racial histories.

Freedom in the 50 States is one of the most comprehensive and definitive sources on how public policies in each American state impact an individual's economic, social, and personal freedoms. William P. Ruger and Jason Sorens score all 50 states on their overall respect for individual freedom, and also on their respect for three dimensions of freedom considered separately: fiscal policy, regulatory policy, and personal freedom. To calculate these scores, they weight public policies based on the estimated costs that individuals suffer when government restricts their freedoms. This 2023 edition improves on the methodology for weighting and combining state and local policies to create a comprehensive index. The authors introduce new policy variables suggested by readers and changes in the broader policy environment, which include but are not limited to a battery of state-level land-use laws affecting housing, new occupational licensing measures, and qualified immunity limitations.

Provides an understanding of the intersection of race and region while addressing contemporary issues such as the future of elementary and higher education, the nature of health-care disparities, and voting and representation. The research presented here reveals that race and class-based problems remain, and geography often is a contributing factor to those differences.

The Tenth Edition brings together the high-quality research expected from this trusted text, with comprehensive and comparative analysis of the fifty U.S. states.