The evidence is part of the story.

The source

U.S. Census Bureau · 2020–2024 ACS 5-Year Estimates. The publisher identified the supplied state_demographics.json as 2024 ACS 5-year data. The five-year reference period is 2020–2024. This website preserves the supplied values and does not substitute current-year statistics.

Census Bureau ACS 5-year dataset documentation ↗ · Understanding ACS estimates ↗ · Download the normalized extract ↓

31 questions from the supplied fields

The JSON has 38 columns: three geography identifiers and 35 measure columns. To produce 31 distinct ranking pages, we use State Population once; Total Population is its duplicate. Housing Occupied, Population 16+ yrs, and Commuting to Work remain available as context in the downloadable extract. They do not receive separate ranking pages in this edition. All other measure fields have a question-led page below.

Geography and cleanup

The file contained 54 records. We removed one identical Massachusetts duplicate and one entirely empty record. The resulting 52 unique geographies comprise the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Rankings compare only the 50 states; D.C. and Puerto Rico appear separately for context.

How ranks work

Each page ranks its own field independently. Most pages start with the largest reported value. Rent and mean commute time start with the lowest. The sorting control reverses the order and recalculates ranks. Equal values receive the same competition rank, so a tie can skip the next rank. Search filters the table without changing nationwide ranks. The middle-of-states statistic is an unweighted median of the 50 state values, not a national population-weighted estimate.

Counts, dollars, and minutes

Counts answer “how many,” and naturally reflect state size. They do not answer “how common.” Dollars compare reported income and rent measures; minutes compare mean travel time. Higher counts of assistance, public insurance, retirement income, or demographic groups are not scored as good or bad. No overall breathing-room score has been created.

Calculated uninsured share

State profiles calculate uninsured ÷ (insured + uninsured) × 100. This denominator follows the insurance fields, rather than total population, because their universes may differ. It is clearly distinguished from the raw-count uninsured ranking. Private and public insurance categories may overlap and are not added to count unique insured residents.

Source quality and interpretation

The exact Census table IDs, variable IDs, counting universes, and margins of error were not included. Publication provenance is supplied by the publisher; the extract has not been independently reconciled to every Census variable. Statistical significance between ranks cannot be established without margins of error. Rankings are descriptive, not certified performance grades.

Housing Units does not equal Housing Occupied plus Housing Vacant for any of the 52 unique geographies. For example, Texas reports 11,589,324 units and 12,616,736 occupied plus vacant units. We preserve each field independently and do not calculate vacancy rates. The rent field is labeled “Avg Median Rent”; its aggregation method is unspecified. Support counts and race/ethnicity labels also need variable-level confirmation. Race and ethnicity categories should not be summed.

What “breathing room” means here

The publication invites comparison of household economic conditions. It does not calculate disposable income, a household budget, cost of living, net worth, or the likelihood that an individual will get ahead. Taxes, childcare, healthcare expenses, transport costs, debt, and household composition would be needed for a fuller budget model.

The question and field directory

Custom analysis and corrections

Explore paid NDS research to commission a deeper investigation. To supply source mappings or report a correction, contact Chris@Consumer.info. Advertising, placement, and sponsorship inquiries go to AdvertisingAgency.US.