Ratio of US States' Unemployed within the US to Total Population within the US, December 2018

Feb 13, 2019
Unemployment Ratios in the US

The chart above shows the ratio of the state's proportion of unemployed people in the US to the state's proportion of total people in the US.  Twenty-two states have an unemployed population that makes up a larger proportion of the US total than their total population does.  For instance, Arizona's unemployed account for 2.70% of the total unemployed people in the US whereas Arizona's population only accounts for 2.07% of the total US population, thus its ratio of unemployed within the US to total people within the US is 1.30.

Findings

  • The difference between the state with the lowest ratio of unemployed within the US to people within the US, Hawaii, and the state with the highest, Alaska, is 0.93.
  • Hawaii has 0.41 times the ratio that Alaska does.
  • Montana is the only state whose unemployed and total population make up the same percentage of the US's unemployed and total population respectively.

Caveats

  • Unemployment data is from December 2018.
  • Population data is from 2010.
  • All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.

Details

Four states each make up more than five percent of the US's unemployed population: California, Texas, New York, and Florida.  These same four states are the only ones whose population makes up over five percent of the US's population.

Only Alaska has an unemployed population that is more than one-and-a-half times the size of its total population when compared to the US totals.  On the flip side, Hawaii's unemployed population as a percent of the US's makes up only a two-thirds of its total population as a percent of the US as a whole.

Data

StateUnemployedPopulationPercent of US UnemployedPercent of US Population
Alabama86,0234,817,7861.41.56
Alaska22,390710,2310.360.23
Arizona165,5086,392,0172.72.07
Arkansas49,1112,915,9180.80.95
California813,85837,253,95613.2512.08
Colorado107,8885,029,1961.761.63
Connecticut76,2203,574,0971.241.16
Delaware18,175897,9340.30.29
Florida334,55218,801,3105.456.1
Georgia184,6329,687,6533.013.14
Hawaii16,9001,360,3010.280.44
Idaho22,5811,567,5820.370.51
Illinois277,51812,830,6324.524.16
Indiana121,8656,483,8021.982.1
Iowa40,6313,134,6930.661.02
Kansas48,9722,853,1180.80.93
Kentucky90,9874,339,3671.481.41
Louisiana104,3504,533,3721.71.47
Maine24,0171,328,3610.390.43
Maryland125,2195,773,5522.041.87
Massachusetts126,2156,547,6292.062.12
Michigan195,6809,883,6403.193.21
Minnesota86,6835,303,9251.411.72
Mississippi60,1212,967,2970.980.96
Missouri95,2425,988,9271.551.94
Montana19,425989,4150.320.32
Nebraska28,4721,826,3410.460.59
Nevada67,4572,700,5511.10.88
New Hampshire18,7191,316,4700.30.43
New Jersey178,0978,791,8942.92.85
New Mexico44,8512,059,1790.730.67
New York378,51219,378,1026.166.29
North Carolina178,4369,535,4832.913.09
North Dakota10,827672,5910.180.22
Ohio264,83011,536,5044.313.74
Oklahoma59,0733,751,3510.961.22
Oregon85,9053,831,0741.41.24
Pennsylvania273,62012,702,3794.464.12
Rhode Island21,6621,052,5670.350.34
South Carolina77,0874,625,3641.261.5
South Dakota13,525814,1800.220.26
Tennessee116,1366,346,1051.892.06
Texas515,09325,145,5618.398.16
Utah49,9462,763,8850.810.9
Vermont9,182625,7410.150.2
Virginia123,1808,001,0242.012.6
Washington165,7276,724,5402.72.18
West Virginia40,1041,852,9940.650.6
Wisconsin93,3845,686,9861.521.84
Wyoming11,619563,6260.190.18

Sources

Bureau of Labor Statistics.  2019.  "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release."  Accessed February 6, 2019.  https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/laus_01182019.htm.

United States Census Bureau.  September 2012.  "United States Summary: 2010: Population and Housing Unit Counts."  Accessed January 23, 2018.  https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/cph-2-1.pdf.

Filed under: Charts and Graphs