placestats

Share now married and Republican share of the two-party vote, 2000

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.

Where Share now married is higher, Republican share of the two-party vote, 2000 tends to be higher. The link is moderate: +0.41 across 3,092 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 39 states, the middle value of the link is +0.51.

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.

Loading every place…

What each measure is

Share now married

The percentage of people aged 15 and over who are married now, including those whose spouse lives elsewhere. The middle county is 52.4%. Never married, married, widowed and divorced cover everyone 15 and over and add up to exactly 100%.

Census ACS 5-year · ACS table B12001_004…B12001_013 (2 cells), divided by population aged 15 and over

Republican share of the two-party vote, 2000

The Republican candidate's share of the votes for the two main parties in the 2000 presidential election. Third-party votes are left out, just as in the other years.

MIT Election Data and Science Lab · MIT county presidential returns

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 now married

Share now marriedRepublican share of the two-party vote, 2000
Highest
Loving County, TX83.3%81
Borden County, TX82.6%82
King County, TX80.9%89.6
Glasscock County, TX80.5%93.1
Thomas County, NE77.5%85.7
Lowest
Radford city, VA25.9%51.5
Sioux County, ND26.1%27.1
Lexington city, VA27.4%47.7
Issaquena County, MS28.8%39.7
Culberson County, TX29.2%41.7

By republican share of the two-party vote, 2000

Share now marriedRepublican share of the two-party vote, 2000
Highest
Glasscock County, TX80.5%93.1
Carter County, MT66.8%91.5
Ochiltree County, TX52.6%91.5
Garfield County, MT68.6%91.4
Harding County, SD64.5%91
Lowest
District of Columbia, DC32.9%9.51
Bronx County, NY36.2%12
Macon County, AL30.4%12.5
Baltimore city, MD30.1%14.6
New York County, NY36.8%15.1
States — Republican share of the two-party vote, 2000 is not published for states

By share now married

Share now marriedRepublican share of the two-party vote, 2000
Highest
Utah56.3%—
Idaho55.1%—
Wyoming54.5%—
Nebraska52.8%—
Kansas52.5%—
Lowest
District of Columbia32.9%—
Puerto Rico36.4%—
New Mexico44.4%—
Louisiana45.7%—
Rhode Island46%—
Metro areas

By share now married

Share now marriedRepublican share of the two-party vote, 2000
Highest
Wildwood-The Villages, FL63.4%55.7
Granbury, TX62.9%72.5
Andrews, TX62.3%77.9
Crossville, TN62.3%59
Port Lavaca, TX62%57.4
Lowest
Gallup, NM31.9%33
Clarksdale, MS32.8%39.5
Vermillion, SD34.3%47.3
Ruston, LA35.7%57.4
Cleveland, MS35.9%36.5

By republican share of the two-party vote, 2000

Share now marriedRepublican share of the two-party vote, 2000
Highest
Rexburg, ID46.6%88.9
Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT58.5%85.5
Cedar City, UT54.2%85
Fredericksburg, TX59.7%84.3
Logan, UT-ID58.5%83.8
Lowest
Rio Grande City-Roma, TX50.1%22.7
Las Vegas, NM38.1%26.5
Taos, NM39%28
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA50.3%28.7
Pittsfield, MA47.2%29.4
Cities and towns — Republican share of the two-party vote, 2000 is not published for cities and towns

By share now married

Share now marriedRepublican share of the two-party vote, 2000
Highest
St. James town, NC87.7%—
Camp Pendleton South CDP, CA87.6%—
The Village of Indian Hill city, OH80.4%—
Tellico Village CDP, TN79.9%—
Saddlebrooke CDP, AZ79.3%—
Lowest
Stony Brook University CDP, NY2.07%—
Rutgers University-Busch Campus CDP, NJ3.78%—
Isla Vista CDP, CA4.48%—
Cullowhee CDP, NC5.67%—
University of California-Davis CDP, CA5.71%—
ZIP codes — Republican share of the two-party vote, 2000 is not published for ZIP codes

By share now married

Share now marriedRepublican share of the two-party vote, 2000
Highest
ZIP 13603 (Fort Drum CDP, NY)86.9%—
ZIP 80902 (El Paso County, CO)85.3%—
ZIP 78619 (Hays County, TX)82.9%—
ZIP 31315 (Fort Stewart CDP, GA)82.3%—
ZIP 84310 (Weber County, UT)78.2%—
Lowest
ZIP 38677 (University CDP, MS)0%—
ZIP 32612 (Gainesville city, FL)0%—
ZIP 19717 (Newark city, DE)0%—
ZIP 92055 (San Diego County, CA)3.43%—
ZIP 15282 (Pittsburgh city, PA)4.21%—

Counties furthest from the pattern

Compared with the straight line that best fits all 3,111 counties: the five with far more republican share of the two-party vote, 2000 than their share now married would suggest, and the five with far less.

Share now marriedRepublican share of the two-party vote, 2000
Above the line
Madison County, ID42.9%90.7
Hooker County, NE39.2%81.1
Ochiltree County, TX52.6%91.5
Concho County, TX37.9%75.3
Union County, NM37%73.7
Below the line
Starr County, TX50.1%22.7
Brooks County, TX50.1%23.1
Kings County, NY43.1%16.3
Queens County, NY48.4%22.6
Menominee County, WI44.8%19.2

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+0.5343,092 counties reporting both
After adjusting for density, income and education+0.409the part of the link that is not just how urban, rich and educated a place is
Also adjusting for population size+0.411size taken out as well as density
Also comparing only within each state+0.402each county is compared only with others in its own state, so this is no longer a comparison between states
Giving bigger counties more weight+0.591the adjusted link for the average resident rather than the average county. With this weighting, the data counts for about 286 equally weighted counties
Middle value inside single states+0.508the link worked out inside each of 39 states with at least 20 counties reporting
Using ranks, after adjusting+0.377uses 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 = 1.0e-124. But counties in the same state tend to resemble each other, so the better figure allows for that: p = 1.9e-15. 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 9.3e-124.

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 +0.47 (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 Share now married and Republican share of the two-party vote, 2000