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Motor vehicle crash deaths and Flu vaccination among Medicare enrollees

Across 2,479 counties, Motor vehicle crash deaths and Flu vaccination among Medicare enrollees have a link of -0.57, on a scale from −1 (opposite) to +1 (in step). But compare places with the same population density, income and education, and a weak link of -0.22 remains. Most of the first figure came from both measures following how urban, rich and educated a place is, not from a link with each other.

Mostly gone 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

Motor vehicle crash deaths

Deaths in car and other motor vehicle crashes per 100,000 people.

County Health Rankings · County Health Rankings v039

Flu vaccination among Medicare enrollees

The percentage of people on Medicare who got a flu shot.

County Health Rankings · County Health Rankings v155

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 motor vehicle crash deaths

Motor vehicle crash deathsFlu vaccination among Medicare enrollees
Highest
Big Horn County, MT900.34%
Oglala Lakota County, SD86.40.17%
Todd County, SD80.60.12%
Jackson County, SD76.30.08%
Dewey County, SD68.30.22%
Lowest
New York County, NY2.710.55%
Arlington County, VA2.730.53%
Loudoun County, VA3.460.52%
Kings County, NY3.660.38%
Richmond County, NY3.830.46%

By flu vaccination among Medicare enrollees

Motor vehicle crash deathsFlu vaccination among Medicare enrollees
Highest
Story County, IA4.510.69%
Dane County, WI6.920.69%
Douglas County, KS7.80.66%
Carroll County, IA12.70.65%
Johnson County, IA6.210.65%
Lowest
Yuma County, CO24.30.07%
Jackson County, SD76.30.08%
Ferry County, WA32.10.11%
Todd County, SD80.60.12%
Lake County, OR39.20.13%
States

By motor vehicle crash deaths

Motor vehicle crash deathsFlu vaccination among Medicare enrollees
Highest
Mississippi25.50.42%
South Carolina20.80.5%
Alabama20.70.41%
Arkansas19.80.46%
New Mexico19.80.4%
Lowest
New York5.90.51%
Massachusetts6.010.58%
District of Columbia6.390.43%
Rhode Island6.890.52%
New Jersey6.980.53%

By flu vaccination among Medicare enrollees

Motor vehicle crash deathsFlu vaccination among Medicare enrollees
Highest
Massachusetts6.010.58%
Delaware13.20.56%
Pennsylvania9.460.55%
Connecticut8.540.55%
Iowa11.40.54%
Lowest
Alaska11.20.32%
Nevada11.60.38%
Wyoming170.4%
New Mexico19.80.4%
Idaho13.80.4%
Metro areas

By motor vehicle crash deaths

Motor vehicle crash deathsFlu vaccination among Medicare enrollees
Highest
Palatka, FL45.50.34%
Gallup, NM42.30.41%
Lumberton, NC41.40.39%
Show Low, AZ40.20.38%
Selma, AL39.20.39%
Lowest
Amherst Town-Northampton, MA5.040.62%
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ5.040.495%
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH5.140.581%
Pullman, WA5.540.52%
Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT5.830.49%

By flu vaccination among Medicare enrollees

Motor vehicle crash deathsFlu vaccination among Medicare enrollees
Highest
Ames, IA6.310.673%
Madison, WI8.410.663%
Lawrence, KS7.80.66%
Carroll, IA12.70.65%
Iowa City, IA6.880.631%
Lowest
Winnemucca, NV19.30.15%
Safford, AZ21.60.19%
Andrews, TX26.60.2%
Hobbs, NM24.80.22%
Hannibal, MO18.40.221%

Counties furthest from the pattern

Compared with the straight line that best fits all 2,481 counties: the five with far more flu vaccination among Medicare enrollees than their motor vehicle crash deaths would suggest, and the five with far less.

Motor vehicle crash deathsFlu vaccination among Medicare enrollees
Above the line
Big Horn County, MT900.34%
Polk County, NE46.50.55%
Nicholas County, KY50.60.48%
Ballard County, KY39.90.52%
Jefferson Davis County, MS60.10.41%
Below the line
Yuma County, CO24.30.07%
Humboldt County, NV19.30.15%
Todd County, MN150.2%
Seward County, NE11.50.22%
Clay County, KY22.70.16%

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-0.5692,479 counties reporting both
After adjusting for density, income and education-0.224the part of the link that is not just how urban, rich and educated a place is
Also adjusting for population size-0.244size taken out as well as density
Also comparing only within each state-0.184each county is compared only with others in its own state, so this is no longer a comparison between states
Giving bigger counties more weight-0.210the adjusted link for the average resident rather than the average county. With this weighting, the data counts for about 276 equally weighted counties
Middle value inside single states-0.579the link worked out inside each of 36 states with at least 20 counties reporting
Using ranks, after adjusting-0.178uses 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 = 1.5e-29. But counties in the same state tend to resemble each other, so the better figure allows for that: p = 2.1e-6. The site tested 20,910 pairs, and testing so many turns up some flukes. The q-value allows for that too. For this pair it is 6.0e-29.

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 +0.35 (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 motor vehicle crash deaths rose most, did flu vaccination among medicare enrolleesmove 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 years2,408-0.01-0.000.935

Measured over the nearest years published: Motor vehicle crash deaths: 2019–2022 for the 2019–2023 row; Flu vaccination among Medicare enrollees: 2019–2022 for the 2019–2023 row.

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 Motor vehicle crash deaths and Flu vaccination among Medicare enrollees