Here's a neat map which takes demographical data from every single US county and then analyze them to figure out which characteristic best represents each county. They've used 15 different characteristics, though a couple of them are very similar. It's hard to get a view of Alaska & Hawaii unfortunately, even if you zoom out.
http://project.wnyc.org/acp/#5/38.393/-94.658 (close up)
http://project.wnyc.org/acp/#4/38.34/-94.66 (zoomed out)
Here are a list of all 15 characteristics and which state best represent the characteristic on the map.
Military Posts: North Carolina, Virginia
Graying America: Oregon, Maine, Wyoming
Aging Farmlands: North Dakota
Working Class Country: West Virginia
Rural Middle America: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana
Evangelical Hubs: Oklahoma, Kentucky
Middle Suburbs: Massachusetts, New Jersey
Exurbs: New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maryland
African American South: Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi
College Towns: Rhode Island
Native American Lands: Arizona, South Dakota, Montana
Urban Suburbs: Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, California
LDS Enclaves: Utah, Idaho
Hispanic Centers: Texas, New Mexico, California
Big Cities: California, Texas
Pretty interesting stuff.
Ooops. I was planning to post this in the Trends subforum, sorry. Maybe some moderator could relocate it? Thanks.
