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Cancer other than skin cancer and Motor vehicle theft rate

Where Cancer other than skin cancer is higher, Motor vehicle theft rate tends to be lower. The link is weak: -0.33 across 2,125 counties, on a scale from −1 (opposite) to +1 (in step). That figure compares places with the same population density, income and education, so those differences can't explain it. It holds inside states too. Measured separately within each of 34 states, the middle value of the link is -0.39.

Holds after adjusting

Every place, plotted

One dot for each place reporting both measures. Hover over or tap a dot to see its name and values. The thin line is the straight line that best fits the dots. The bold line, shown for counties, is the link after adjusting for density, income and education. A dot far from the lines is a place that does not follow the pattern.

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What each measure is

Cancer other than skin cancer

The estimated percentage of adults who have ever been told they had cancer other than skin cancer. It is adjusted so places with older or younger populations can be compared fairly. It is an estimate from a statistical model, not a direct count from a local survey.

CDC PLACES · PLACES CANCER, age-adjusted

Motor vehicle theft rate

Thefts of cars, trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles in the year, per 100,000 residents, from the FBI. It counts only crimes reported to police or found by them, so crimes nobody reports are missing. For a state, the figure is the FBI's estimate, which fills in for police agencies that did not report. For a county, it is only what the agencies reported, and it is shown only where agencies that reported for all 12 months serve at least 90% of the people who live there.

FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program (Crime Data Explorer) · FBI Crime Data Explorer: states, estimated_crimes motor_vehicle_theft; counties, Return A master file, actual offenses

Highest and lowest

Where each measure is highest and lowest among the places reporting both (2023), with the other measure beside it. This is shown for every size of place where both are published. Metro-area values are added up from their counties. A measure that cannot be added up across counties, such as a middle value (median), has no metro figure. Counts are shown per 1,000 residents, since raw totals would only list the largest places. Cities and towns and ZIP codes are shown where the Census survey or the CDC publishes them; most other sources stop at the county. They are shown for places of 5,000 residents or more, and only where the survey’s margin of error is small enough for the figure to be usable. The CDC publishes its health estimates for cities in a version adjusted for age, so places with older or younger people can be compared fairly, but not for ZIP codes.

Counties

By cancer other than skin cancer

Cancer other than skin cancerMotor vehicle theft rate
Highest
Nassau County, FL8%0
Grand Traverse County, MI8%37.8
Keweenaw County, MI8%42.3
Leelanau County, MI8%13.2
Livingston County, MI8%32.4
Lowest
Starr County, TX4.2%91.2
Maverick County, TX4.2%226
Zavala County, TX4.3%173
Zapata County, TX4.4%0
Webb County, TX4.4%134

By motor vehicle theft rate

Cancer other than skin cancerMotor vehicle theft rate
Highest
St. Louis city, MO6.2%2,219
Baltimore city, MD5.5%1,966
Shelby County, TN5.9%1,873
Orleans Parish, LA5.5%1,842
Alameda County, CA5.3%1,842
Lowest
San Juan County, CO7.6%0
Sierra County, CA7.2%0
Wrangell City and Borough, AK6.8%0
Niobrara County, WY7.5%0
Menominee County, WI6.1%0
States — Cancer other than skin cancer is not published for states

By motor vehicle theft rate

Cancer other than skin cancerMotor vehicle theft rate
Highest
District of Columbia—1,061
Nevada—681
Washington—680
Colorado—659
Maryland—557
Lowest
New Hampshire—64.2
Idaho—77.3
Maine—79.9
West Virginia—91.7
Vermont—92.5
Metro areas

By cancer other than skin cancer

Cancer other than skin cancerMotor vehicle theft rate
Highest
Brookings, SD8%49
Keene, NH8%46.7
Laconia, NH8%76.9
Spearfish, SD8%40.9
Traverse City, MI7.95%42.9
Lowest
Rio Grande City-Roma, TX4.2%91.2
Eagle Pass, TX4.2%226
Zapata, TX4.4%0
Town of Pecos, TX4.4%223
Laredo, TX4.4%134

By motor vehicle theft rate

Cancer other than skin cancerMotor vehicle theft rate
Highest
Memphis, TN-MS-AR6.1%1,420
Pueblo, CO6.5%1,235
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA6.75%1,008
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA5.58%979
Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO7.03%940
Lowest
Zapata, TX4.4%0
Lexington, NE6.28%0
Columbus, IN7.2%0.701
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL7.62%2.27
Greenville, OH7.6%10.3
Cities and towns — Motor vehicle theft rate is not published for cities and towns

By cancer other than skin cancer

Cancer other than skin cancerMotor vehicle theft rate
Highest
Pelican Bay CDP, FL8.6%—
Naples city, FL8.5%—
Sanibel city, FL8.5%—
Alpine city, UT8.5%—
Gulf Breeze city, FL8.4%—
Lowest
Rosemead city, CA3.6%—
Monterey Park city, CA3.7%—
South San Gabriel CDP, CA3.8%—
Waipahu CDP, HI3.8%—
El Monte city, CA3.9%—

Counties furthest from the pattern

Compared with the straight line that best fits all 2,134 counties: the five with far more motor vehicle theft rate than their cancer other than skin cancer would suggest, and the five with far less.

Cancer other than skin cancerMotor vehicle theft rate
Above the line
St. Louis city, MO6.2%2,219
Baltimore city, MD5.5%1,966
Shelby County, TN5.9%1,873
Denver County, CO6.6%1,746
Orleans Parish, LA5.5%1,842
Below the line
Zapata County, TX4.4%0
Jim Hogg County, TX4.5%42.3
Starr County, TX4.2%91.2
Brooks County, TX4.4%73.1
Mora County, NM5%22.6

Two series, one county

Both measures over time for a county you pick. The two charts are stacked, so they share only the years along the bottom. You can pick from the thirty largest counties reporting both. This panel covers 2010–2024, and a measure published only once shows as a single dot.

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Every version of the link

Each row measures the same link, from −1 to +1, in a different way. If the rows mostly agree, the link does not depend on one choice of method.

Before adjusting for anything-0.3372,125 counties reporting both
After adjusting for density, income and education-0.334the part of the link that is not just how urban, rich and educated a place is
Also adjusting for population size-0.322size taken out as well as density
Also comparing only within each state-0.305each county is compared only with others in its own state, so this is no longer a comparison between states
Giving bigger counties more weight-0.376the adjusted link for the average resident rather than the average county. With this weighting, the data counts for about 213 equally weighted counties
Middle value inside single states-0.386the link worked out inside each of 34 states with at least 20 counties reporting
Using ranks, after adjusting-0.341uses each county’s rank, not its value, so a few extreme counties cannot create the link

How much to believe it

Could it be chance?

The p-value is the chance of seeing a link this strong if there were really none. A value of 0.05 or less means the link is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 3.1e-16 means 0.00000000000000031, and the bigger the number after “e-”, the smaller the value. Treating every county as a separate case gives p = 1.8e-56. But counties in the same state tend to resemble each other, so the better figure allows for that: p = 3.8e-5. The site tested 29,403 pairs, and testing so many turns up some flukes. The q-value allows for that too. For this pair it is 1.3e-55.

Do nearby places look alike?

Moran’s I measures how much nearby places look alike: 0 means no map pattern, and higher means neighbours are more similar. For the part of each county that the adjustment leaves unexplained, it is +0.23 (p = 0.001). That unexplained part still clusters on the map. So some regional factor shared by both measures is not accounted for.

Did they change together?

The figures above compare counties at one moment. This asks a different question: where cancer other than skin cancer rose most, did motor vehicle theft ratemove too? Each county’s change is compared with the average change in its own state. That takes out ups and downs that hit a whole region at once. Each change is the gap between two estimates that both contain some error. That error pulls these links towards zero, so a weak one is weak partly for that reason. The q column shows whether a link could be a fluke, allowing for the many pairs tested: 0.05 or less means it is unlikely to be chance.

PeriodCountiesChange togetherWithin statesq
2014–2019 the main test: each Census survey figure averages five years, and these two do not overlap; before the pandemic————
2019–2023 a repeat check: its two five-year survey figures both include 2019, and it covers the COVID years1,745-0.19-0.240.001

Not measurable over the main period, so only the second period is shown. How change is measured.

Related pairs

Association only. Nothing here shows that either measure changes the other. This describes counties, not the people in them. Two measures going together across places does not mean the same people have both. How the US county data works · Explore Cancer other than skin cancer and Motor vehicle theft rate