State Of The Nation Spreadsheet

"Despite an overall housing recovery, it’s suddenly becoming more common in several of the nation’s largest cities for homeowners to owe more on their home than it’s worth.

The national negative equity rate, which had declined for 2 1/2 years, stalled in the fourth quarter of 2014 at 16.9 percent, according to a new report from Zillow.

Negative equity refers to when a homeowner owes more a mortgage than the value of the home if sold on the market."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/20/the-cities-where-houses-are-suddenly-going-underwater

"China’s remarkable economic growth has created a middle class with cash to spend, and plenty of that disposable income appears to be going to alcohol.

In 1978, China’s per capita booze consumption was 2.5 liters of pure alcohol per year. By 2010, that figure was 6.7 liters. Making things more dramatic, more than half of the Chinese population aged over 15 years old—42% of men and 71% of women—are teetotallers."

http://qz.com/366621/chinese-drinkers-now-put-away-more-than-the-irish-the-brits-and-the-aussies

"In each state, there is one company that employs the most people. As a state’s largest employer, the company may have a disproportionately large impact on its economy as well as on the surrounding region. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from a range of sources in order to identify the largest employers in each state."

http://247wallst.com/special-report/2015/03/19/the-largest-employer-in-each-state-2

"As the weather starts to warm up, we start to think about the best ways to cool off. And what better way to refresh, rejuvenate and relax in warmer temps than a dip in a pool of clear, tranquil water?

From old-fashioned swimming holes (complete with rope swing) and natural waterslides to hidden waterfall oases, hot springs and picturesque lakes, we round up the best swimming spots in every state for the ultimate soak across America. Some are stunning natural wonders, some are jewels of the state park system and others are man-made attractions, but all these spots conjure images of sun-kissed days and family-friendly fun."

http://www.weather.com/travel/news/swimming-every-state

"With St. Patrick's Day festivities set to kick off on Tuesday, one of the most popular drinking days of the year could mean long lines at your local bar. But some cities are more equipped to manage the revelers than others.

The Las Vegas metro area has the highest number of bartenders per capita, according to a recent study by the jobs site CareerBuilder. Sin City has about 5.5 bartenders per 1,000 residents, the study found."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/16/most-bartenders-cities_n_6880378.html

"Everyone knows Americans don't agree on pronunciations.

That's great, because regional accents are a major part of what makes American English so interesting.

Joshua Katz, a Ph.D student of statistics at North Carolina State University, just published a group of awesome visualizations of Professor Bert Vaux and Scott Golder's linguistic survey, which looked at how Americans pronounce words (via detsl on /r/Linguistics)."

http://www.businessinsider.com/22-maps-that-show-the-deepest-linguistic-conflicts-in-america-2013-6

"Gratuities, often paid in cash, are hard to track. A new report sheds light on an estimated $11 billion of annual unreported income."

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/how-much-do-waiters-really-earn-in-tips/385515

"America's Unemployment Insurance Programs Need to Be Reimagined. For some workers, the recession produced historically long stretches of joblessness. A new Brookings study suggests ways to counteract that."

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/americas-unemployment-insurance-programs-need-to-be-reimagined/387409

"The gender pay gap is alive and well everywhere in America, but it's more alive in some states than in others.

It will take 144 years before Wyoming women working full time and year-round make the same as their male counterparts on average, according to an analysis from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a think tank focused on women’s economic issues. By contrast, women living in Florida should see the gender pay gap close there in 23 years."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/13/gender-wage-gap-close_n_6863314.html

"Having reached a peak in the late 1980s, the number of nuclear warheads has dropped significantly. But more countries now possess them."

http://thebulletin.org/nuclear-notebook-multimedia

http://www.americashealthrankings.org

"The number of violent crimes dropped across the United States by 4.4% in 2013 compared to the year before, according to estimates released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In the last decade, the number of violent crimes declined by nearly 15%.

http://247wallst.com/special-report/2015/01/02/the-most-dangerous-states-in-america-2/2

"The world is spinning so fast that it can be hard to keep track of everything that is going on. Yet despite the fact that we can feel like we are being increasingly overloaded with information, it's not clear that we're doing a very good job of making sense of all that data we're receiving."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/07/opinions/rosling-global-knowledge/index.html

More information: http://www.gapminder.org

"In 1993, the U.S. Census released tally of the 76 most common street names in America. For well over 20 years, this was pretty much the only list that anyone had."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/03/06/these-are-the-most-popular-street-names-in-every-state

"A few weeks ago, we published a chart ranking the largest cities in America by the diversity of its top-line demographics. We simplified these demographics down to five major racial/ethnic groups, and the closer they were to being in a 1:1:1:1:1 ratio with each other, the more diverse the city was.

But, there was a problem with this. "

http://priceonomics.com/the-most-and-least-segregated-cities-in-america

"If you suffer a permanent injury on the job, you’re typically entitled to compensation for the damage to your body and your future lost wages. But depending on the state, benefits for the same body part can differ dramatically."

http://projects.propublica.org/graphics/workers-compensation-benefits-by-limb

"Fifty years ago, nearly a third of U.S. workers belonged to a union. Today, it's one in 10. But the decline has not been the same for every state. Here is a map showing how union membership has changed across the country."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2015/02/23/385843576/50-years-of-shrinking-union-membership-in-one-map

"A prominent fundamentalist organization is making headlines after creating an "anti-Christian bigotry map" which includes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocacy groups.

The American Family Association's interactive map, which can be found here, breaks down groups into four categories: anti-Christian, humanist, atheist and those with a "homosexual agenda.""

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/25/american-family-association-bigotry-map-_n_6754528.html

"Parents have made news recently after being detained for purposefully leaving children on their own, prompting renewed debate about so-called "free-range parenting."

That includes Danielle and Alexander Meitiv, a Silver Spring, Md., couple who are being investigated after they let their children, ages 10 and 6, walk home from a park last month by themselves."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/02/18/384050825/kids-solo-playtime-unleashes-free-range-parenting-debate

"Craving some silence? Head (quietly) toward the blue regions on the map above. Based on 1.5 million hours of acoustical monitoring from places as remote as Dinosaur National Monument in Utah and as urban as New York City, scientists have created a map of noise levels across the country on an average summer day. After feeding acoustic data into a computer algorithm, the researchers modeled sound levels across the country including variables such as air and street traffic. Deep blue regions, such as Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, have background noise levels lower than 20 decibels—a silence likely as deep as before European colonization, researchers say."

http://news.sciencemag.org/environment/2015/02/new-map-shows-americas-quietest-places

"A leading advocacy group warns of a “worldwide deterioration in freedom of information” last year.

Out of the 180 countries being surveyed, two-thirds have slipped in standards compared to last year, according to the Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index 2015."

http://www.juancole.com/2015/02/drastic-decline-freedom.html

'With a country as large as the United States, winter comes in all forms. And some more than others, will suffer from the bitter cold that comes with snowy days.

The slideshow on this page counts down the greatest snow depth ever officially recorded in each of the 50 states, in order from lowest to highest. Our list comes from the certified records maintained by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).

Click through to find out where your state ranks - and to see which state tops them all. You may be surprised!"

http://www.weather.com/sports-recreation/ski/news/deepest-snow-50-states-record-snow-cover-20130220

"Figures are from the 2011 revision of the United Nations World Population Prospects report, by five years averages,[1] and the CIA World Factbook.[2]

The infant mortality rate (IMR) is the number of deaths of infants under one year old per 1,000 live births. This rate is often used as an indicator of the level of health in a country. The infant mortality rate of the world is 49.4 according to the United Nations and 42.09 according to the CIA World Factbook.

Note that due to differences in reporting, these numbers may not be comparable across countries; while the WHO recommendation is that all children who show signs of life should be recorded as live births, in many countries this standard is not followed, artificially lowering their infant mortality rates relative to countries which follow those standards."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate

"State and local school vaccination requirements are implemented to maintain high vaccination coverage and minimize the risk from vaccine preventable diseases (1). To assess school vaccination coverage and exemptions, CDC annually analyzes school vaccination coverage data from federally funded immunization programs. These awardees include 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC), five cities, and eight U.S.-affiliated jurisdictions.* This report summarizes vaccination coverage from 48 states and DC and exemption rates from 49 states and DC for children entering kindergarten for the 2012–13 school year. Forty-eight states and DC reported vaccination coverage, with medians of 94.5% for 2 doses of measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine; 95.1% for local requirements for diphtheria, tetanus toxoid, and acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccination; and 93.8% for 2 doses of varicella vaccine among awardees with a 2-dose requirement. Forty-nine states and DC reported exemption rates, with the median total of 1.8%. Although school entry coverage for most awardees was at or near national Healthy People 2020 targets of maintaining 95% vaccination coverage levels for 2 doses of MMR vaccine, 4 doses of DTaP† vaccine, and 2 doses of varicella vaccine (2), low vaccination and high exemption levels can cluster within communities, increasing the risk for disease. Reports to CDC are aggregated at the state level; however, local reporting of school vaccination coverage might be accessible by awardees. These local-level data can be used to create evidence-based health communication strategies to help parents understand the risks for vaccine-preventable diseases and the benefits of vaccinations to the health of their children and other kindergarteners."

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6230a3.htm?s_cid=mm6230a3_e

"*We used data from the Census Bureau, which has two catch-all categories: "managers not elsewhere classified" and "salespersons not elsewhere classified." Because those categories are broad and vague to the point of meaninglessness, we excluded them from our map."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2015/02/05/382664837/map-the-most-common-job-in-every-state