The Census Studies–
Background:
In late March 2014 the Associated Press (AP) reported that eight of ten US House of Representative Districts with the highest annual mean incomes were districts held by Democrats.
This was somewhat surprising as the media constantly labels Republicans “the party of the rich.” The article went on to list the top ten Congressional Districts predominantly on the East and West Coasts and led by several well known and very liberal Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Henry Waxman and Jerry Nadler.
In response to this article, we decided to review the most recent Census data ourselves and see what other items of interest might be found hidden in this data.
Progressives Today first collected the 2012 US census data housed at the government census site. We also obtained a list of Congressional Representatives and their party affiliation from the US Congressional website for the 113th Congress voted into office starting in 2012 and combined these files into one massive spreadsheet to obtain relationships.
Earlier this week Progressives Today reported:
** 36 of the poorest 39 districts in the US are Democrat districts
** The Middle Class – Working Class districts in the US are represented by Republicans by a two-to-one ratio
** The shameful results of the Black Congressional Caucus districts – Their constituents are black, poor, have low incomes, and rely on the government for their health care. They rent rather than own, are high school dropouts and are unemployed.
Today we have this tidbit on the education level of Republican versus Democrat districts.
— Just as with income levels, the Democrat Party represents the extremes in education levels. Democrats tend to be high school dropouts or post graduate students. Republicans tend to be individuals with a high school education and individuals with some college experience but have not attained a degree – typical working class Americans.
Education – Of the sixteen education related categories, two categories are highly correlated with Republican led districts and two categories are highly correlated with Democratic led districts. Republican led districts correlate highly with individuals who have attained a high school degree or equivalent (31%) and individuals who have had some college but have not attained a degree (27%). Democratic led districts on the other hand correlate highly with individuals who are enrolled in college or graduate school (31%) and individuals with less than a 9th grade education (30%).
By Joe Hoft and Jim Hoft
