placestats

Motor vehicle crash deaths and Mean income of departing households

Across 2,489 counties, Motor vehicle crash deaths and Mean income of departing households have a link of -0.51, 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

Motor vehicle crash deaths

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

County Health Rankings · County Health Rankings v039

Mean income of departing households

The average income on the tax returns of people who moved out.

IRS county migration flows · IRS SOI migration, county aggregates

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 deathsMean income of departing households
Highest
Big Horn County, MT90$47,642
Oglala Lakota County, SD86.4$31,443
Todd County, SD80.6$44,949
Jackson County, SD76.3$43,071
Dewey County, SD68.3$44,735
Lowest
New York County, NY2.71$184,460
Arlington County, VA2.73$124,640
Loudoun County, VA3.46$119,640
Kings County, NY3.66$92,760
Richmond County, NY3.83$81,941

By mean income of departing households

Motor vehicle crash deathsMean income of departing households
Highest
San Francisco County, CA4.56$197,250
San Mateo County, CA5.53$186,430
New York County, NY2.71$184,460
Santa Clara County, CA6.95$176,300
Marin County, CA5.57$166,660
Lowest
Madison Parish, LA20$29,067
Evans County, GA34.7$29,245
Perry County, AL30.6$29,586
Holmes County, MS47.6$30,005
Tunica County, MS27.8$30,209
States

By motor vehicle crash deaths

Motor vehicle crash deathsMean income of departing households
Highest
Mississippi25.5$53,459
South Carolina20.8$66,638
Alabama20.7$63,927
Arkansas19.8$59,308
New Mexico19.8$68,473
Lowest
New York5.9$106,890
Massachusetts6.01$116,360
District of Columbia6.39$117,230
Rhode Island6.89$79,463
New Jersey6.98$107,090

By mean income of departing households

Motor vehicle crash deathsMean income of departing households
Highest
District of Columbia6.39$117,230
Massachusetts6.01$116,360
Connecticut8.54$107,280
New Jersey6.98$107,090
New York5.9$106,890
Lowest
Mississippi25.5$53,459
Arkansas19.8$59,308
West Virginia15.9$60,437
Oklahoma17.9$60,452
Louisiana18$62,595
Metro areas

By motor vehicle crash deaths

Motor vehicle crash deathsMean income of departing households
Highest
Palatka, FL45.5$47,626
Gallup, NM42.3$43,470
Lumberton, NC41.4$43,051
Show Low, AZ40.2$55,314
Selma, AL39.2$40,979
Lowest
Amherst Town-Northampton, MA5.04$67,509
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ5.04$113,810
Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT5.09$133,340
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH5.14$119,110
Pullman, WA5.54$55,759

By mean income of departing households

Motor vehicle crash deathsMean income of departing households
Highest
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA7.35$175,160
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA6.65$156,960
Gardnerville Ranchos, NV-CA10.2$148,660
Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT5.09$133,340
Naples-Marco Island, FL10.2$126,380
Lowest
Middlesborough, KY29$34,039
Forrest City, AR25.5$35,708
Moultrie, GA23.8$36,372
Kennett, MO24.6$36,678
Clarksdale, MS27.9$37,933

Counties furthest from the pattern

Compared with the straight line that best fits all 2,491 counties: the five with far more mean income of departing households than their motor vehicle crash deaths would suggest, and the five with far less.

Motor vehicle crash deathsMean income of departing households
Above the line
San Francisco County, CA4.56$197,250
San Mateo County, CA5.53$186,430
New York County, NY2.71$184,460
Santa Clara County, CA6.95$176,300
Marin County, CA5.57$166,660
Below the line
Madison County, ID5.22$41,311
Madison Parish, LA20$29,067
Neosho County, KS16.2$35,739
Hopewell city, VA13.2$39,324
Starr County, TX13.2$39,747

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-0.5102,489 counties reporting both
After adjusting for density, income and education+0.090the part of the link that is not just how urban, rich and educated a place is
Also adjusting for population size+0.117size taken out as well as density
Also comparing only within each state+0.078each county is compared only with others in its own state, so this is no longer a comparison between states
Giving bigger counties more weight+0.131the adjusted link for the average resident rather than the average county. With this weighting, the data counts for about 280 equally weighted counties
Middle value inside single states-0.508the link worked out inside each of 36 states with at least 20 counties reporting
Using ranks, after adjusting-0.005uses 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 = 6.4e-6. But counties in the same state tend to resemble each other, so the better figure allows for that: p = 0.010. 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 1.1e-5.

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 +0.26 (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 mean income of departing householdsmove 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 years2,410+0.05+0.020.709

Measured over the nearest years published: Motor vehicle crash deaths: 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 Mean income of departing households