It’s no secret that rural areas tend to be more conservative while urban enclaves are more liberal. But rather than simply generalize regional areas, what happens if we look at each town in every state to see which are the most conservative and liberal? The results may surprise you.
Political campaigns rely on data more than ever, and Clarity Campaign Labs provides the analytics campaign managers need to target the right people with those annoying fliers and phone calls.
The company has released an interesting tool called What Town Matches My Politics? After selecting your state, you can find which city best suits you politically by answering the following questions with “Agree,” “Disagree,” or “Don’t Include”…
- I identify with the Democrats more so than the Republicans.
- Abortion should be legal and accessible to all women.
- I attend religious services regularly.
- Climate change is an immediate concern that must be addressed.
- There should be more restrictions on purchasing and carrying guns.
- The government should reduce the deficit primarily by raising taxes rather than cutting services.
- I prefer urban areas.
Using the raw data from Clarity and removing the questions about religious services and urban areas, Business Insider analyst Andy Kiersz produced a map showing which communities in each state are the most liberal and conservative.
Digging deeper, we looked up the populations for each town. The most populated liberal city is New York, with 8,337,000 people, while the least populated town is Chama, Colorado, with just 63 residents. The most populated conservative locale is Baker, Florida, with 7,157 residents, while just 42 people call the least populated community of Dickey, North Dakota, home.
Not surprisingly, the average population of the most liberal towns is 392,872, while the average size of the most conservative towns is just 1,080. Even using the median populations there’s an enormous gap, with a median population of 108,613 for the most liberal towns and just 530 for conservative municipalities.
We’ve split the map into four sections to make it easier to read the names of the cities and towns. Locales in red are conservative while those in blue are liberal…
Northeastern United States
Southeastern United States
Northwestern United States
Southwestern United States plus Alaska and Hawaii
(Click here to view the entire map as one image.)