In part two of my research about city population data, I cover four things: The political leanings of the city and the state it's in; the number of single adults; the percentage of adults with bachelor's degrees; and the gay- and lesbian-friendliness of the city.
Here you'll see I start to diverge from plain old numbers and offer up my own observations, and some more subjective research from outside sources. For example, I have my own opinions about how gay-friendly a place is based on my own observations, not just what I managed to research online.
[Update: New category added on March 9:]
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| People make the city! |
Political Leanings of the State: Which political party has the advantage? Percentage of state residents self-identifying as liberal or conservative. (Both Gallup Polls).
California (LA): 19 advantage Dem. 24.1% liberal. 33.2% conservative.
Illinois (Chicago): 24 advantage Dem. 21.9% L. 35.9% C.
Pennsylvania (Philadelphia): 16 advantage Dem. 19.7% L. 38.1% C.
Ohio (Columbus): 18 advantage Dem. 19.8% L. 39.3% C.
DC: 75 advantage Dem. 41.1% L. 18.1% C. [The only state, in the country I think, where more people identify as liberal than conservative.]
Colorado (Denver): 11 advantage Dem. 26% L. 36.4% C.
Oregon (Portland): 17 advantage Dem. 26.3% L. 34.5% C.
North Carolina (Raleigh): 11 advantage Dem. 17.6% L. 41.4% C.
Ohio (Cleveland): 18 advantage Dem. 19.8% L. 39.3% C.
Iowa (Des Moines): 18 advantage Dem. 17% L. 42.7% C.
North Carolina (Asheville): 11 advantage Dem. 17.6% L. 41.4% C.
[What I learned from this exercise is that while more people in each of these states call themselves Democrats than Republicans, more people call themselves conservatives than liberals.]
Political leanings of the cities (Sources: Bay Area Center for Voting Research 2004 study.** Dailycaller.com 2010 study. Others search, no extra data added here.)
LA: LA doesn't appear on any lists of liberal or conservative.
Chicago: 17th most liberal city 2004.
Philadelphia: 18th most liberal city 2004.
Columbus: Columbus doesn't appear on any lists of liberal or conservative.
DC: 4th most liberal city 2004. 2010: DC 10th most liberal. Neighboring Arlington & Alexandria 13th and 14th most liberal counties; Montgomery county 2nd most liberal. [DC itself, which has no voting representation in Congress, often has its laws tampered with by Congress.]
Denver: Neighboring Boulder County (but not Denver) 4th most liberal county 2010. Denver not mentioned on any lists of liberal or conservative.
Portland: 16th most liberal county 2010.
Raleigh: Neighboring Chapel Hill/Orange County (but not Raleigh) 20th most liberal county 2010. Raleigh not mentioned on any lists of liberal or conservative.
Cleveland: 11th most liberal city 2004.
Des Moines: Des Moines doesn't appear on any lists of liberal or conservative.
Asheville: Asheville doesn't appear on any lists of liberal or conservative. (Too small?) But I feel pretty certain it can be called liberal.
Percentage of unmarried people ages 25-64 and gender imbalances (Source: Sterling's Best Places (Bestplaces.net)):** To put these numbers into perspective, San Francisco has the highest percentage of singletons at 44.7% and McAllen, TX the lowest at 23%.
LA: 37.7 (#6) 2.1% more women
Chicago: 35.4% (#19) 8.7% more women
Philadelphia: 36% (#16) 14.1% more women
Columbus: 34.2% (#32) 4.9% more women
DC (includes Arlington & Alexandria): 36.2% (#14) 11.3% more women
Denver: 34.5% (#29) 3.3% more men [Oooo yeaaaah!]
Portland: 33.3% (#39) 3.4% more men [I'm gleefully rubbing my hands.]
Raleigh: 29.1% (#87) 6.1% more women
Cleveland: 36.2% (#13) 11.6% more women
Des Moines: [More research needed. Anyone from Iowa reading this and can offer help?]
Asheville: [More research needed. Paul or Heather -- any idea?]
** This study looked at 100 cities. Of those 100 cities, the gender gap was overwhelmingly women over men. Only a handful of cities had more men than women.
Forbes's 2009 40 Best Cities For Singles (Based on number of singles, night life, culture, cost of living for one person, online dating pool, job growth, coolness factor)
LA: #8 (strength: online dating)
Chicago: #3 (strength: online dating)
Philadelphia: #10 (strength: culture & online dating)
Columbus: #28 (strength: cost of living)
DC: #5 (strength: online dating)
Denver: #13 (strength: cost of living)
Portland: #16 (strength: nightlife)
Raleigh: Did not make the list
Cleveland: #14 (strength: cost of living & nightlife)
Des Moines: Did not make the list (too small?)
Asheville: Did not make the list (too small?)
Percentage of people age 25 and over with bachelor's degree or higher within the county (US Census). I thought of adding this category to my post about education, but decided to put it here instead, since these numbers aren't necessarily related to the quality of educational opportunities in each place.
Los Angeles County (LA): 29%
Cook County (Chicago): 33.2%
Philadelphia County (Philadelphia): 22.2% [The lowest.]
Franklin County (Columbus): 35%
DC: (DC only, no suburbs) 49% [The highest.]
Denver County (Denver): 40%
Multnomah County (Portland): 37.5%
Wake County (Raleigh): 47.4%
Cuyahoga County (Cleveland): 28.2%
Polk County (Des Moines): 32.8%
Buncombe County (Asheville): 31.2%
Gay & Lesbian Friendliness (The Advocate Magazine 2011 & 2010)
LA: From personal observation, pretty gay-friendly.
Chicago: From personal observation, pretty gay-friendly.
Philadelphia: Contains a large and lively gay district.
Columbus: From personal observation, very gay-friendly.
DC: The Advocate's #8 gay-friendliest city 2011. Dupont Circle for the win!
Denver: The Advocate's #13 gay-friendliest city 2011.
Portland: Suburb Vancouver, WA is #6 gay-friendliest city 2011. Portland itself seemed pretty gay-friendly too.
Raleigh: Hmm... I need to do more research about Raleigh!
Cleveland: The Advocate's #12 gay-friendliest city 2011 (and host of 2014 Gay Games).
Des Moines: Contains a small-ish but obvious gay district.
Asheville: The Advocate's #12 gay-friendliest in 2010. Rumor is it's very gay-friendly.
Percent of households with children. Data from AmericanTowns.com.
LA: 35% Most homes with children.
Chicago: 33%
Philadelphia: 29%
Columbus: 31%
DC: 21% Fewest homes with children.
Denver: 26%
Portland: 24%
Raleigh: 29%
Cleveland: 33%
Des Moines: 32%
Asheville: 24%
Not sure how current this is:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.americantowns.com/nc/asheville-information
Looks like the average age is just shy of 40 and women outnumber men slightly. Take in to account though the number of lesbian couples here (Asheville is nick-named "Sheville" for a reason). Percentage of married people is a bit bellow average, not sure about "single" though.
Hope some of this helps.
-Paul
Ooo, great website for research, especially the smaller cities on my list. Thanks, Paul!
ReplyDeleteNo problem!
ReplyDelete