Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Smart, Thin and Rich

What's this? Good news about Connecticut?
So, in order, here are the states with the 5 best and 5 worst average rankings:

Best

CO 40.67
MN 40.00
UT 39.67
WI 39.33
CT 38.67

Worst

SC 7.33
TX 8.00
WV 10.00
GA 10.67
MS 11.67

I'm glad we're in the top 5 for something positive for once.

Of course, you'd think that having a lot of money and intelligence lying around would make for a slightly better economy. Oh, well. No one's saying it's a particularly meaningful list.

3 comments:

GMR said...

Classic case of how statistics can be used to make any argument.

Look at the top SAT states. ND, IA, SD, WI, MN, IL, KS. Notice anything similar about these states? Like they are all in the farm belt?

Why do these farm state kids get such high SAT scores? Because hardly any kids take the test. In the midwest, the preferred test is the ACT. If you go to Kansas State or South Dakota State, you take the ACT. If you live in the farm belt, but think you want to go to a school in California or Boston, you take the SAT. Severe selection bias. Kids that want to go to out of state state schools or private universities far from home are the only kids in these states that take the SAT.

The poverty statistics don't appear to have any adjustment for cost of living. Furthermore, poverty statistics are highly influenced by immigration: that's why TX and NM are so low. How the heck did Delaware get so low?

Anonymous said...

As a FatGuy, I find this analysis offensive. Is the state worse off because I'm fat? Not with the taxes I pay. Especially the sales taxes on the gourmet dinners I eat in the Nutmeg State's finest restaurants.

GMR is absolutely right about selection bias with the SAT-ACT. (Also, states with more college-bound kids will tend to pull the numbers down).

I'd like to see these numbers broken out by town.

Anyone want to hazard a guess at the top 5 and bottom 5?

(It would surprise you, because Darien residents are grossly overweight. Take it from the Fat Guy.)

Anonymous said...

This list is just a stupid list some thin person probably created for something to do probably a Liberal as well.

There is enough stereotyping of people in the world as it is. Some people have weight issues due to medical conditions and I blame this on some idiotic brainiac.

This another example of people taking polls Because they have no life and cant get a real job.