Florida, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, Texas, Missouri, Alabama, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, West Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, Connecticut, California, Colorado, Indiana, Illinois, South Carolina, Maryland, Wisconsin, Montana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Delaware, Iowa, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Virginia, Washington, Arizona, Vermont, Oregon, Utah, and last, Idaho.
(No data available for missing states.)
Designated Wetlands?Report
Good guess by @alan-scott . I’ll say “wildlife sanctuaries.” But I’m specifically thinking about birds when I say that.Report
@burt-likko do you think fewer bird sanctuaries better?
In truth, I cannot conceive this. But I’m old enough to remember Rachel Carson’s Silent Springs, the time when there really was a huge dip in the bird populations, and spring time was quieter then it is of late.Report
That guess was made before the “fewer is better” clue. I rather like the idea of bird sanctuaries.Report
Likelihood a white-on-black shooting will result in a murder conviction (increasing).Report
Tuesday Hint: Being at the bottom of this list is preferable to being at the top of the list.Report
Number of disenfranchised voters in the state.Report
Ratio of number of incarcerated people over the state’s population.Report
Death rate by stroke or heart attack?Report
If being high on the list is a bad thing, it would be strange that Minnesota is #9, being a state with a generally high quality of life. And relatively poor New Mexico is near the more advantageous bottom of the list.Report
Wednesday Hint: It’s a dollar amount.Report
Money spent on mosquito abatement?Report
Based on the clustering of mostly southern states at the disadvantageous top of the list my thought was that it was a ranking of states by per-capita prison expenditures. Once again, however, Minnesota’s fairly high ranking would not make much sense if that were the case.Report
Average cost for an ambulance? Average cost for a tow truck? (highest to lowest in both cases)Report
Thursday Hint: Rounded to the nearest $50, the value for Florida is $2,300, Oklahoma $1550, Illinois $750, Utah $450, and Idaho $400.Report
Money spent on prisoners per capita?Report
Average funeral costs.Report
Average annual homeowners flood insurance premium.Report
Oklahoma is #2Report
Okies are always leaving the faucet on.Report
Fair enough. Your answer isn’t quite correct, but you get at least a half-point.Report
Spending per something on damage from lightning? Or tornadoes?Report
What about life insurance, then? I’m guessing the relatively heavy-fat diet of the south along with the aged population of Florida raises the premiums there, while the younger and more active lifestyles of the mountain states makes for better premiums there.Report
Thursday Hint #2: Florida and Louisiana are up there for one reason, while Oklahoma and Arkansas for another. Texas is up there for reasons that overlap with both groups.Report
Tornadoes and hurricanes. Storm insurance premiums? Or at least homeowners insurance?Report
Or money per person spent on disaster/storm relief.Report
Home insurance premiums. I attribute Oklahoma and Arkansas to tornadoes. My hint kind of sucked, though, because tornadoes contribute to Louisiana and Florida as well. It’s just that with FL and LA, we tend to think of hurricanes.Report
It looks like Florida has the second highest average number of tornadoes per year, after Texas, which is so big that it shouldn’t count. Oklahoma is third, while Arkansas is 15th. In fact, if you do it as a function of land area, Florida is #1, Oklahoma #2, and Louisiana #5 (it’s #8 in the raw average). Texas drops to 7th.
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/cae/svrwx/tornadobystate.htmReport