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The most recent ACS data from the 2016-2020 period has somewhat lower educational attainment figures for all locations than the numbers above. This is probably the "gold standard" for such data, as it has a larger sample size than other surveys. Kansas is slightly above the national average, and Missouri a little further below.
My guess is that there is a small influence on political outcomes, as Missouri has trended further right in recent years while Kansas has pulled back a little from the reddest cohort of states. Kansas and Utah are the only predominantly red states where the share with a bachelor's degree exceeds the national average.
Bachelor's degree or higher:
United States 32.9%
Kansas 33.9%
Missouri 29.9%
Pennsylvania 32.3%
Yes, and the most educated area of Kansas by far is Johnson and Douglas counties, which have been trending much more Democratic and have the vast majority of the population growth in the state. Most of the rest of the state is declining in population or stagnant.
Yes, and the most educated area of Kansas by far is Johnson and Douglas counties, which have been trending much more Democratic and have the vast majority of the population growth in the state. Most of the rest of the state is declining in population or stagnant.
Another highly educated location is Riley County (home of Manhattan and KSU) which actually voted Democratic for president for the first time ever in 2020.
I rather like Missouri and especially the way you portrayed it here. I also like the way you think! I love KC and I had the privilege of going to a Catholic college in Kansas City, if only for a year. Fell in love with the city while I was there especially the people I met and the food I ate!
If I were to move there it would either be my first choice, the Ozarks or KC… cool thread.
Avila or Rockhurst? (Or was it Donnelly in KCK, or St. Mary in Leavenworth?)
Rockhurst (University now, College when I was growing up there) is the city's Jesuit institution of higher education, and I've long considered the Jesuits the true intellectuals of the Catholic Church. (New Yorker writer and "Revisionist History" podcast host Malcolm Gladwell shares my opinion of the Jesuits; he devoted three straight episodes of Season 4 to examine Jesuitical logic and reasoning.)
However, the companion high school was one of Pembroke-Country Day's (now Pembroke Hill) chief rivals in sports. We usually referred to it, not flatteringly, as "Jockhurst."
Quote:
Originally Posted by jas75
The most recent ACS data from the 2016-2020 period has somewhat lower educational attainment figures for all locations than the numbers above. This is probably the "gold standard" for such data, as it has a larger sample size than other surveys. Kansas is slightly above the national average, and Missouri a little further below.
My guess is that there is a small influence on political outcomes, as Missouri has trended further right in recent years while Kansas has pulled back a little from the reddest cohort of states. Kansas and Utah are the only predominantly red states where the share with a bachelor's degree exceeds the national average.
Bachelor's degree or higher:
United States 32.9%
Kansas 33.9%
Missouri 29.9%
Pennsylvania 32.3%
Thanks. It's really hard to sort through all the statistical sites out there to get good data. The figures I used came from FRED, the highly regarded and very useful economic data site maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. According to this page, their figures also come from ACS 5-year data. So now I wonder what accounts for this discrepancy?
The reason I call Kansas pink rather than red is because, while it has not voted for a Democrat for President since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, at the state level, it has a now-solid history of alternating parties at the gubernatorial level (as Pennsylvania has had since 1966). As I think I noted upthread, six of Kansas' last 11 governors since Robert Docking (D, 1967-75, the longest-serving Governor in the state's history) have been Democrats.
Another highly educated location is Riley County (home of Manhattan and KSU) which actually voted Democratic for president for the first time ever in 2020.
But the interesting thing is, the most consistently Democratic county in the state is blue-collar, industrial Wyandotte (now one with the city of Kansas City, Kan.) That county also happens to have a higher percentage of Black and Hispanic residents than any other in the state, which I suspect explains its consistently Democratic voting pattern.
But the interesting thing is, the most consistently Democratic county in the state is blue-collar, industrial Wyandotte (now one with the city of Kansas City, Kan.) That county also happens to have a higher percentage of Black and Hispanic residents than any other in the state, which I suspect explains its consistently Democratic voting pattern.
That doesn't explain the completely different voting patterns of Ford, Finney, and Seward counties, all majority minority counties with a large Hispanic population. They are certainly not solidly Democratic voting counties, and I don't suspect that will change greatly.
But the interesting thing is, the most consistently Democratic county in the state is blue-collar, industrial Wyandotte (now one with the city of Kansas City, Kan.) That county also happens to have a higher percentage of Black and Hispanic residents than any other in the state, which I suspect explains its consistently Democratic voting pattern.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GraniteStater
That doesn't explain the completely different voting patterns of Ford, Finney, and Seward counties, all majority minority counties with a large Hispanic population. They are certainly not solidly Democratic voting counties, and I don't suspect that will change greatly.
I think the level of urbanization in a county has a lot to do with voting patterns, in addition to education and race/ethnicity. Wyandotte is in a large metropolitan area, while the southwest Kansas counties are centered around small towns in a region dominated by agriculture and meat processing, and with a sizable non-citizen population.
Thanks. It's really hard to sort through all the statistical sites out there to get good data. The figures I used came from FRED, the highly regarded and very useful economic data site maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. According to this page, their figures also come from ACS 5-year data. So now I wonder what accounts for this discrepancy?
Looking at the FRED link, it appears that the 35.1% figure for Kansas was for residents age 18 and older. I didn't check the other numbers you found but the Census Bureau typically uses residents age 25 and older for educational attainment statistics (e.g. on their QuickFacts page: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fa...O,KS/PST045221).
The rationale for this is likely that most people complete their bachelor's degree no earlier than their early to mid 20s. Locations with many 18 to 24 year olds working on their degrees would get less favorable numbers when all residents over age 18 are in scope.
That doesn't explain the completely different voting patterns of Ford, Finney, and Seward counties, all majority minority counties with a large Hispanic population. They are certainly not solidly Democratic voting counties, and I don't suspect that will change greatly.
I keep forgetting that the "White alone" figure in the Census Quick Facts tables includes White Hispanics, and that white non-Hispanics appear at the bottom. (But then, I wonder why the bureau doesn't break out non-Hispanic Blacks, since Hispanics can be of any race? Sure, I suspect that most Hispanics in this country classify themselves as white, but I count at least one Afro-Cuban-American among my friends, and I think it would be equally interesting to know what percentage of Hispanics are Black. And speaking politically, I think it would be interesting to learn whether Black Hispanics' voting habits more closely resemble those of other Blacks or those of other Hispanics.)
I think two main attributes distinguish those counties from Wyandotte, and that those attributes explain why they also vote differently from Kansas' bluest county:
While 70 to 90 percent of the populations of the three counties live in their county seats (Dodge City, Garden City and Liberal, respectively), the counties are all rural and otherwise very sparsely populated, and none of those three cities is big enough to be considered the core city of an MSA — they're all µSAs. It seems to me that residents of small cities in rural territory vote like other rural residents do rather than like residents of large(r) cities.
Those three counties are all majority-minority because they're majority-Hispanic. No county in Kansas has as high a percentage of Black residents as Wyandotte does, and Wyandotte wouldn't be majority-minority without the one-fifth (22 percent) of its residents who are Black. (Hispanics do outnumber them, making up 30 percent of the county's population, though; it's the most heavily Hispanic county in the Kansas City MSA.) We all know that Blacks still vote overwhelmingly Democratic, and we are learning that Hispanics are drifting rightward. Since I suspect the Hispanics in the western Kansas counties work in agriculture (none of these three counties have significant industry not connected to agriculture that I'm aware of), chances are they wold have attitudes closer to those of their white neighbors than they would the Hispanics who work in KCK's auto assembly plants and vast railroad yards.
Missouri will continue to go in a backward direction, demographics don't tend to change very quickly anymore with fewer people moving in general. There are many other states becoming more regressive, so it isn't alone.
Where I live in South Central Kansas near Wichita is quite regressive in many ways. It is sad.
Where I live in South Central Kansas near Wichita is quite regressive in many ways. It is sad.
The only area of Kansas that contributes the vast majority of any economic growth and population growth is eastern Kansas, mainly Johnson County.
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