I guess it should come as little surprise that the lowest per capita number of individuals who hold passports would directly parallel the regions of the country that comprise the Bible belt. You know, the same region where ignorance and intolerance tend to be enthusiastically embraced as a virtue. The map above shows that Mississippi wins the prize for the lowest number of citizens with passports. Perhaps if these folks got out and saw more of the world they might be forced to open their eyes to the fact that their made up reality is flawed and out of touch with objective reality. The Atlantic looks at the results of a new study - here are some highlights:
*
It's a fun map. With the exception of Sarah Palin's home state, it reinforces the "differences" we expect to find between the states where more worldly, well-traveled people live versus those where the folks Palin likes to call "real Americans" preponderate. Mostly to entertain myself, I decided to look at how this passport metric correlates with a variety of other political, cultural, economic, and demographic measures. What surprised me is how closely it lines up with the other great cleavages in America today.
*
It's also reasonable to assume that more highly educated people would be more likely to hold a passport. And that too is what we find across the states. There is a considerable correlation (.80) between passports and human capital levels (measured as the percentage of a population with a bachelor's degree or higher). What's really striking is that this correlation holds even when we control for income,
*
There is a substantial correlation (.70) between the percentage of passport holders and the percentage of the workforce in knowledge-based and creative jobs. Conversely, there is significant negative correlation between passport holders and the share of the workforce in blue-collar working class jobs (-.82). Working class states have considerably less passport holders than creative class states.
*
What about politics? How does passport holding line up against America's Red state-Blue state divide? Pretty darn well, actually. There is a considerable positive correlation between passports and Obama voters (.59) and a significant negative one (-.61) for McCain voters. It appears that more liberally-oriented states are more globally oriented as well, or at least their citizens like to travel abroad.
*
There are stark cultural differences between places where international travel is common and those where it's not, and we can see them playing out in the cultural and political strife that has been riving the country over the past decades.
*
The trends in passport use reflect America's starkly bifurcated system of infrastructure. One set of places has great universities and easy access to international airports; another an infrastructure that is much further off the beaten track of the global circulation of capital, talent, and ideas.
*
It's a fun map. With the exception of Sarah Palin's home state, it reinforces the "differences" we expect to find between the states where more worldly, well-traveled people live versus those where the folks Palin likes to call "real Americans" preponderate. Mostly to entertain myself, I decided to look at how this passport metric correlates with a variety of other political, cultural, economic, and demographic measures. What surprised me is how closely it lines up with the other great cleavages in America today.
*
It's also reasonable to assume that more highly educated people would be more likely to hold a passport. And that too is what we find across the states. There is a considerable correlation (.80) between passports and human capital levels (measured as the percentage of a population with a bachelor's degree or higher). What's really striking is that this correlation holds even when we control for income,
*
There is a substantial correlation (.70) between the percentage of passport holders and the percentage of the workforce in knowledge-based and creative jobs. Conversely, there is significant negative correlation between passport holders and the share of the workforce in blue-collar working class jobs (-.82). Working class states have considerably less passport holders than creative class states.
*
What about politics? How does passport holding line up against America's Red state-Blue state divide? Pretty darn well, actually. There is a considerable positive correlation between passports and Obama voters (.59) and a significant negative one (-.61) for McCain voters. It appears that more liberally-oriented states are more globally oriented as well, or at least their citizens like to travel abroad.
*
There are stark cultural differences between places where international travel is common and those where it's not, and we can see them playing out in the cultural and political strife that has been riving the country over the past decades.
*
The trends in passport use reflect America's starkly bifurcated system of infrastructure. One set of places has great universities and easy access to international airports; another an infrastructure that is much further off the beaten track of the global circulation of capital, talent, and ideas.
1 comment:
excellent post. i think one of the reasons alaska has so many passport holders is due to our driving through canada on a regular basis.
i love how you linked all of these different facts and figures together. now, do you have any idea on how our country can fix the blue collar states, and bring them into the present thereby looseing the grip of the religious right?
Post a Comment