American thoughts on gun ownership

Pavel Prikhodko, Ph.D. Machine Learning

As we previously discussed, the issue of gun ownership is one of the most controversial in the US. In this post, we’ll analyze a bit more information about what people think of free gun possession in America. According to Statista.com, the most-armed American state is currently Texas, with 403,185 registered weapons. California comes in second with 312,264 registered weapons, and Virginia takes third with 268,234 registered weapons in the state. Florida and Pennsylvania round out the top five, with 254,391 and 225,377 respectively.

Continue reading American thoughts on gun ownership

Who wants to legalize marijuana in the United States?

Pavel Prikhodko, Ph.D. Machine Learning

After many years of debate, California became the first state in the United States to legalize medical marijuana in 1996. As of 2015, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical and recreational use. Despite some forms of legalization, thousands of American people think that marijuana should be legalized for free use.

Continue reading Who wants to legalize marijuana in the United States?

From rich to super-rich: do you pay lower taxes?

Alexander Fishkov, Ph.D. student Computer Science

Income tax policy in the United States is known to be progressive: those who earn higher amounts have to pay an increasingly larger percentage in taxes compared to those who make less. This allows the government to redistribute wealth and fight economic inequalities within the society.  But do rich people really pay higher taxes?

Continue reading From rich to super-rich: do you pay lower taxes?

Well-educated parents are more likely to stay together

Andrey Kamenov, Ph.D. Probability and Statistics

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Household Survey, almost half of all homeowners live with children. Of them, one-third (16 percent of all homeowners) are incomplete families.

Of course, many factors influence this, and we are going to take a look at any statistical properties one can infer from the data at hand.

Continue reading Well-educated parents are more likely to stay together

Leisure time: do Americans spend it differently this decade?

Alexander Fishkov, Ph.D. student Computer Science

In this post we will explore the American Time Use Survey data to see how hobbies have changed in American society over the last decade. The ATUS provides information about the time Americans spend on various activities throughout the day. Activities are classified into 17 broad categories, as well as over a hundred more detailed ones, providing quite detailed information about leisure and sports. The ATUS started in 2003 with close connections to American Community Survey, so we will be able to see the changes over the course of a decade.

Continue reading Leisure time: do Americans spend it differently this decade?

The number of immigrants working in Construction is soaring

Andrey Kamenov, Ph.D. Probability and Statistics

Some popular topics for discussion on our blog have included employment numbers for different economic sectors and immigration. As we have already seen, the share of people born outside of the U.S. differs significantly from state to state. But what are the effects of immigration on the Construction sector?

Continue reading The number of immigrants working in Construction is soaring

Telling stories through data