Share widowed and Motor vehicle crash deaths
Across 2,487 counties, Share widowed and Motor vehicle crash deaths have a link of +0.50, on a scale from −1 (opposite) to +1 (in step). But compare places with the same population density, income and education, and a very weak link of +0.15 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.
Loading every place…
What each measure is
Share widowed
The percentage of people aged 15 and over whose spouse has died. It mostly follows how old the population is, so it is close to a second measure of a county's age.
Census ACS 5-year · ACS table B12001_009…B12001_018 (2 cells), divided by population aged 15 and over
Motor vehicle crash deaths
Deaths in car and other motor vehicle crashes per 100,000 people.
County Health Rankings · County Health Rankings v039
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 share widowed
| Share widowed | Motor vehicle crash deaths | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Nevada County, AR | 13.8% | 32.9 |
| McDowell County, WV | 13.8% | 27.7 |
| Stone County, AR | 13.5% | 21.6 |
| Lancaster County, VA | 13% | 18.6 |
| Perry County, AL | 12.8% | 30.6 |
| Lowest | ||
| Madison County, ID | 1.46% | 5.22 |
| Gunnison County, CO | 2.4% | 12.5 |
| Utah County, UT | 2.54% | 5.61 |
| Arlington County, VA | 2.73% | 2.73 |
| Cache County, UT | 2.74% | 8.68 |
By motor vehicle crash deaths
| Share widowed | Motor vehicle crash deaths | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Big Horn County, MT | 7.62% | 90 |
| Oglala Lakota County, SD | 6.1% | 86.4 |
| Todd County, SD | 4.75% | 80.6 |
| Jackson County, SD | 7.11% | 76.3 |
| Dewey County, SD | 6.48% | 68.3 |
| Lowest | ||
| New York County, NY | 4.62% | 2.71 |
| Arlington County, VA | 2.73% | 2.73 |
| Loudoun County, VA | 3.34% | 3.46 |
| Kings County, NY | 5.03% | 3.66 |
| Richmond County, NY | 5.93% | 3.83 |
States
By share widowed
| Share widowed | Motor vehicle crash deaths | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| West Virginia | 7.93% | 15.9 |
| Mississippi | 7.06% | 25.5 |
| Alabama | 6.88% | 20.7 |
| Arkansas | 6.86% | 19.8 |
| Kentucky | 6.63% | 17.4 |
| Lowest | ||
| District of Columbia | 3.41% | 6.39 |
| Utah | 3.51% | 8.72 |
| Alaska | 4.09% | 11.2 |
| Colorado | 4.11% | 11.8 |
| Washington | 4.61% | 8.78 |
By motor vehicle crash deaths
| Share widowed | Motor vehicle crash deaths | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Mississippi | 7.06% | 25.5 |
| South Carolina | 6.5% | 20.8 |
| Alabama | 6.88% | 20.7 |
| Arkansas | 6.86% | 19.8 |
| New Mexico | 5.93% | 19.8 |
| Lowest | ||
| New York | 5.59% | 5.9 |
| Massachusetts | 5.1% | 6.01 |
| District of Columbia | 3.41% | 6.39 |
| Rhode Island | 5.73% | 6.89 |
| New Jersey | 5.55% | 6.98 |
Metro areas
By share widowed
| Share widowed | Motor vehicle crash deaths | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Mountain Home, AR | 11.2% | 15.7 |
| Martinsville, VA | 10.8% | 24 |
| Middlesborough, KY | 10.6% | 29 |
| Wildwood-The Villages, FL | 10.5% | 17.1 |
| Selma, AL | 10.4% | 39.2 |
| Lowest | ||
| Rexburg, ID | 2.1% | 8.8 |
| Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT | 2.56% | 5.83 |
| Heber, UT | 2.88% | 8.92 |
| Logan, UT-ID | 2.92% | 9.72 |
| Pullman, WA | 2.97% | 5.54 |
By motor vehicle crash deaths
| Share widowed | Motor vehicle crash deaths | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Palatka, FL | 8.93% | 45.5 |
| Gallup, NM | 6.86% | 42.3 |
| Lumberton, NC | 7.83% | 41.4 |
| Show Low, AZ | 5.99% | 40.2 |
| Selma, AL | 10.4% | 39.2 |
| Lowest | ||
| Amherst Town-Northampton, MA | 5.02% | 5.04 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 5.39% | 5.04 |
| Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT | 4.98% | 5.09 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 4.85% | 5.14 |
| Pullman, WA | 2.97% | 5.54 |
Cities and towns — Motor vehicle crash deaths is not published for cities and towns
By share widowed
| Share widowed | Motor vehicle crash deaths | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Leisure World CDP, MD | 24.3% | — |
| Holiday City-Berkeley CDP, NJ | 23.8% | — |
| Crestwood Village CDP, NJ | 23.2% | — |
| South Pasadena city, FL | 22.3% | — |
| The Meadows CDP, FL | 21% | — |
| Lowest | ||
| University of California-Santa Barbara CDP, CA | 0% | — |
| Lemoore Station CDP, CA | 0% | — |
| Fort Irwin CDP, CA | 0% | — |
| Camp Pendleton South CDP, CA | 0% | — |
| Fort Rucker CDP, AL | 0% | — |
ZIP codes — Motor vehicle crash deaths is not published for ZIP codes
By share widowed
| Share widowed | Motor vehicle crash deaths | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| ZIP 92637 (Laguna Woods city, CA) | 20.5% | — |
| ZIP 85351 (Sun City CDP, AZ) | 18.6% | — |
| ZIP 08759 (Ocean County, NJ) | 18.5% | — |
| ZIP 07444 (Pompton Plains CDP, NJ) | 17.9% | — |
| ZIP 33484 (Palm Beach County, FL) | 17.3% | — |
| Lowest | ||
| ZIP 06269 (Storrs CDP, CT) | 0% | — |
| ZIP 01003 (Amherst Town city, MA) | 0% | — |
| ZIP 99703 (Fairbanks city, AK) | 0% | — |
| ZIP 94720 (Berkeley city, CA) | 0% | — |
| ZIP 93410 (California Polytechnic State University CDP, CA) | 0% | — |
Counties furthest from the pattern
Compared with the straight line that best fits all 2,489 counties: the five with far more motor vehicle crash deaths than their share widowed would suggest, and the five with far less.
| Share widowed | Motor vehicle crash deaths | |
|---|---|---|
| Above the line | ||
| Oglala Lakota County, SD | 6.1% | 86.4 |
| Big Horn County, MT | 7.62% | 90 |
| Todd County, SD | 4.75% | 80.6 |
| Jackson County, SD | 7.11% | 76.3 |
| Dewey County, SD | 6.48% | 68.3 |
| Below the line | ||
| Brooke County, WV | 11% | 9.03 |
| Lancaster County, VA | 13% | 18.6 |
| Essex County, NY | 8.58% | 6.12 |
| Talbot County, MD | 9.3% | 8.81 |
| Summers County, WV | 12.5% | 18.3 |
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.
Loading…
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 | +0.503 | 2,487 counties reporting both |
| After adjusting for density, income and education | +0.153 | the part of the link that is not just how urban, rich and educated a place is |
| Also adjusting for population size | +0.121 | size taken out as well as density |
| Also comparing only within each state | +0.119 | each county is compared only with others in its own state, so this is no longer a comparison between states |
| Giving bigger counties more weight | +0.177 | the 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 | +0.539 | the link worked out inside each of 36 states with at least 20 counties reporting |
| Using ranks, after adjusting | +0.149 | uses 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 = 2.1e-14. But counties in the same state tend to resemble each other, so the better figure allows for that: p = 9.6e-5. 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 5.6e-14.
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 +0.34 (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 share widowed rose most, did motor vehicle crash deathsmove 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.
| Period | Counties | Change together | Within states | q |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014–2019 the main test: each Census survey figure averages five years, and these two do not overlap; before the pandemic | 2,380 | -0.01 | -0.02 | 0.644 |
| 2019–2023 a repeat check: its two five-year survey figures both include 2019, and it covers the COVID years | 2,407 | +0.01 | +0.00 | 0.938 |
Measured over the nearest years published: Motor vehicle crash deaths: 2013–2019 for the 2014–2019 row; Motor vehicle crash deaths: 2019–2022 for the 2019–2023 row.
Over the main period, any link between the changes could easily be chance. How change is measured.
Related pairs
- Motor vehicle crash deaths and Years of potential life lost — +0.56
- Share aged 65 and over and Share widowed — +0.55
- Motor vehicle crash deaths and Premature mortality — +0.54
- Child mortality and Motor vehicle crash deaths — +0.53
- Median age and Share widowed — +0.53
- Motor vehicle crash deaths and Life expectancy — -0.51
- Motor vehicle crash deaths and Health score — -0.50
- Motor vehicle crash deaths and Homicide rate, annual — +0.50
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 Share widowed and Motor vehicle crash deaths