placestats

Republican swing, 2000 to 2024 and Health score

A county is not a voter. Read either way, this says one thing and no more. Counties that voted more Republican also tend to differ on the other measure, and counties that voted less Republican tend to differ the other way. It does not follow that the people who voted that way are the people with the different score. Making that leap is called the ecological fallacy: reading a pattern across places as a fact about individual people. It is the most common misuse of exactly this data. How a county votes also goes so closely with its density, age and education that much of what looks political here is really those. That is what the adjusted figures are for. The vote shares run from 2000 to 2024, and the links here are measured in 2023.

Across 2,905 counties, Republican swing, 2000 to 2024 and Health score have a link of -0.52, on a scale from −1 (opposite) to +1 (in step). But compare places with the same population density, income and education, and what is left could easily be chance. 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

Republican swing, 2000 to 2024

The change in the Republican share of the two-party presidential vote from 2000 to 2024, in percentage points. Positive means the area moved toward Republicans. That is a different question from which party it votes for.

MIT Election Data and Science Lab · MIT county presidential returns

Health score

One number for a county's health. It averages illness, health habits, preventive care and death rates, each put on the same scale and turned so higher is better. Twenty-six of its thirty measures are CDC PLACES estimates from a statistical model. So measures are averaged within each publisher first, and PLACES counts once, not twenty-six times.

· derived from 41 measures (BRFSS, CDC, CHR)

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 republican swing, 2000 to 2024

Republican swing, 2000 to 2024Health score
Highest
Jackson County, TN52-0.789
Grundy County, TN50.6-0.866
Smith County, TN50-0.388
Mingo County, WV48.4-2.02
McDowell County, WV48-2.16
Lowest
Rockdale County, GA-390.0198
Henry County, GA-33.20.183
Douglas County, GA-28.70.105
Teton County, WY-25.51.59
Ouray County, CO-25.31.33

By health score

Republican swing, 2000 to 2024Health score
Highest
Pitkin County, CO-10.92.09
Manassas Park city, VA-18.51.88
Summit County, CO-151.81
Teton County, WY-25.51.59
Los Alamos County, NM-23.21.55
Lowest
Todd County, SD-8.45-2.84
Buffalo County, SD0.69-2.51
East Carroll Parish, LA3.26-2.21
McDowell County, WV48-2.16
Corson County, SD2.64-2.12
States — Republican swing, 2000 to 2024 is not published for states

By health score

Republican swing, 2000 to 2024Health score
Highest
Hawaii—0.896
Massachusetts—0.83
Connecticut—0.789
New Jersey—0.766
Minnesota—0.688
Lowest
West Virginia—-1.69
Louisiana—-1.24
Mississippi—-1.24
Arkansas—-0.993
Alabama—-0.988
Metro areas

By republican swing, 2000 to 2024

Republican swing, 2000 to 2024Health score
Highest
Scottsboro, AL37.7-0.56
McMinnville, TN35.4-0.615
Rio Grande City-Roma, TX35-1.36
Lewisburg, TN34-0.352
Paragould, AR33.1-0.62
Lowest
Jackson, WY-ID-25.11.02
Los Alamos, NM-23.21.76
Boulder, CO-20.71.47
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX-20.60.888
Lawrence, KS-17.61.2

By health score

Republican swing, 2000 to 2024Health score
Highest
Los Alamos, NM-23.21.76
Breckenridge, CO-12.91.5
Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT-4.731.48
Boulder, CO-20.71.47
Heber, UT-121.46
Lowest
Zapata, TX24.3-1.95
Lumberton, NC24.3-1.77
Minden, LA12.1-1.73
Cleveland, MS1.56-1.68
Durant, OK27.4-1.67

Counties furthest from the pattern

Compared with the straight line that best fits all 2,923 counties: the five with far more health score than their republican swing, 2000 to 2024 would suggest, and the five with far less.

Republican swing, 2000 to 2024Health score
Above the line
Pitkin County, CO-10.92.09
Nassau County, NY12.21.2
Dickinson County, IA16.61.02
Northeastern Connecticut Planning Region, CT13.81.07
Bergen County, NJ5.31.27
Below the line
Todd County, SD-8.45-2.84
Buffalo County, SD0.69-2.51
Humphreys County, MS-12.7-2.02
Mellette County, SD-8.68-1.97
East Carroll Parish, LA3.26-2.21

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-0.5162,905 counties reporting both
After adjusting for density, income and education-0.052the part of the link that is not just how urban, rich and educated a place is
Also adjusting for population size-0.043size taken out as well as density
Also comparing only within each state+0.022each county is compared only with others in its own state, so this is no longer a comparison between states
Giving bigger counties more weight-0.001the adjusted link for the average resident rather than the average county. With this weighting, the data counts for about 262 equally weighted counties
Middle value inside single states-0.559the link worked out inside each of 37 states with at least 20 counties reporting
Using ranks, after adjusting-0.063uses 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 = 0.005. But counties in the same state tend to resemble each other, so the better figure allows for that: p = 0.510. 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 0.007.

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 +0.42 (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?

Not measurable: at least one of these is published for too few of the years a change needs (2014–2019 or 2019–2023), or for too few counties in both.

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 Republican swing, 2000 to 2024 and Health score