Here is some electoral/political food for thought.
With the 2016 presidential picking up steam and the Iowa caucuses a week and two days away on Feb. 1, WalletHub.com conducted an analysis to determine how closely the Hawkeye State resembles the rest of the country in terms of demographic characteristic and pubic opinions.
The analysis reportedly touched on 31 key data measures, including socio-demographic, economic, educational and religious metrics, “as well as public stances on certain issues.”
The analysis found Iowa’s overall resemblance index to be 97 percent.
Others of the analysis’ key findings:
70 percent of Iowa-caucus winners have won the Democratic Party nomination and 43 percent have won the Republican Party nomination.
“The Iowa caucuses therefore are a much better predictor of advancement for Democrats than for Republicans,” the analysis states.
Iowa least resembles the U.S. in terms of religious composition, with a 64.20 percent difference; race, with a 64.80 percent difference; wealth gap, with a 76.88 percent difference and employment by industry, with an 82.20 percent difference.
Iowa most resembles the U.S. in terms of the jobless rate, with a 98.20 percent similarity; households receiving food stamps, with a 98.61 percent similarity; mean work hours, with a 99.74 percent similarity and percentage of population ages three and older enrolled in school, with a 99.94 percent similarity.
WalletHub.com is a personal finance website. It describes itself as a one-stop destination for all the tools and information that consumers and small business owners need to make better financial decisions and save money. It claims to lead the industry “thanks to a unique combination of social features, expert insights and a vast amount of constantly updating information.”
For the full report, visit http://wallethub.com/edu/i-owausresemblance/18578.