Be careful drawing conclusions from this data December 4, 2008 4:50 AM Subscribe
StateStats: Explore the popularity of search queries in U.S. states StateStats shows you how popular a particular Google search is in each state. It also shows correlation with other state rankings such as obesity, income, or unemployment. Here are some examples to get you started, and remember that correlation does not imply causation and all that.
Wow, the correlation of "church" and obesity is about the highest I've ever seen. 0.76.
But beyond the causation problem, there seems to be another issue here. Who exactly uses the internet1 to search for "church"? Would a regular churchgoer actually google "church"? I mean, the map does seem to correlate with my data-free prejudice of the Jesusland States, but I don't get why they are searching for "church". I suppose it must all come from searches like "church music" or "what's a good dish for a church potluck"?
1Which is another problem. Internet searchers are a non-random selection of the populace. posted by DU at 5:13 AM on December 4, 2008
DU: A search for 'obama muslim' is pretty telling if you are wondering what the Jesusland folk are looking for online. posted by Space Coyote at 5:19 AM on December 4, 2008
> I started playing a little game trying to see which searches light up only one state.
The state name seems to work for most (I haven't checked all). There are some exceptions, like Arizona for which there are no results. posted by bjrn at 6:02 AM on December 4, 2008
> I started playing a little game trying to see which searches light up only one state. Joe Sakic for Colorado. posted by philfromhavelock at 6:09 AM on December 4, 2008
I started playing a little game trying to see which searches light up only one state.
So are the bluish states low because they aren't interested in sex or because they have so , so much of it?
Oh Vermont, you little minx. posted by The Whelk at 7:34 AM on December 4, 2008
"god" as a search term worked for me; it gives a 0.84 correlation with obesity, even better than "church". "atheist" has a 0.72, "christ" 0.71, "christian" 0.77.
Searches for "buddhist", on the other hand, is on the other side of the spectrum. It has a -0.71 correlation with obesity. posted by fings at 7:57 AM on December 4, 2008
I started playing a little game trying to see which searches light up only one state.
It's pretty easy to cheat by using city names.
There are some exceptions, like Arizona for which there are no results.
I think they are queuing up new search terms, and then running them in the background, so the results eventually show up. Like Arizona works now. posted by smackfu at 8:24 AM on December 4, 2008
Be careful drawing conclusions from this data.
Voodoo
Top 2 states:
Louisiana 100.0
Mississippi 29.0
Should I be surprised that myspace correlates most strongly with illiteracy...? posted by flod logic at 12:51 PM on December 4, 2008
Cake vs Pie
For cake 9 of the ten top states are in the South.
For pie 9 of the ten top states are in the North. posted by Rashomon at 1:08 PM on December 4, 2008
Wyoming is 1st and 2nd highest for bdsm and bondage, respectively, yet near the bottom for femdom and fetish. Hmm. Eeeenteresting. posted by desjardins at 2:11 PM on December 4, 2008
This is my new favorite toy. Thanks! posted by lunit at 2:26 PM on December 4, 2008
God. obesity, infant mortality, energy consumption, pro-bush Jesus. tennessee wins Muhammad. idaho loses, and kentucky wins? Mormon. utah 100.0, new york 3.0 Jew. utah 35.0, new york 100.0 Poop. latitude? Bestiality. alaska, pro-bush, suicide Philosophy. probama, pop. density, nevada-loses John McCain. obesity, illiteracy Antarctica. alaska takes the frozen cake, frost correlation. Anal. california, the unemployed Peace. probama, antibush Depression. +latitude McDonalds. +obesity Poetry. vermont wins, hawaii loses Shakespeare. idaho wins, arizona loses posted by ageispolis at 4:44 PM on December 4, 2008 [1 favorite]
Aversion Therapy, I noticed that the relative rate of
search queries for "fisting" by users in Wyoming is 100%.
Lies, damned lies, statistics and all that, but it still draws a delightful picture of Wyoming's populace. posted by lekvar at 5:05 PM on December 4, 2008
I'd love to have this either bigger - for the world - or smaller - by county... But I guess we don't have the data yet. posted by houshuang at 12:11 AM on December 5, 2008
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But beyond the causation problem, there seems to be another issue here. Who exactly uses the internet1 to search for "church"? Would a regular churchgoer actually google "church"? I mean, the map does seem to correlate with my data-free prejudice of the Jesusland States, but I don't get why they are searching for "church". I suppose it must all come from searches like "church music" or "what's a good dish for a church potluck"?
1Which is another problem. Internet searchers are a non-random selection of the populace.
posted by DU at 5:13 AM on December 4, 2008