Stumbled upon this visualization on the Census Bureau website which provides state level data on a variety of economic factors, including:

• Age (median)
• Commuting to work (mean travel time)
• Computer and internet access
• Education (percent of high school graduates)
• Employment status
• Health insurance coverage
• Household income

Here's the map with commute times by state:

Questions:

• Go through each of the economic factors listed for your state and list the data for your state (e.g., our state has a commute time of 32 minutes or greater) and compare to the rest of the country (e.g., our state has a longer commute time than the rest of the country based on the chart). 
  
  • Teacher tip: Opportunity for a jigsaw where students can report back the results of their research. 
• Summarize the factors where your state does better than the rest of the country and where it performs worse than the rest of the country. 
• Which of the factors do you think are most important for economic growth? 
• What factors do you think have the greatest impact on household income? Explain. 

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NGPF's Data Crunch hone your students' analytical skills at interpreting charts and graphs. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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