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The occupational-death rate (number/1000) varies greatly among the states in the United States. (See table at end for 1996 rates.)
An interesting question to ask is: Is there any correlation between the occupational-death rate and the strength of the two political parties in the states?
I compared different state's occupational-death rate (ODR) data for 1996 with the results of the 1996 presidential election for each state. (See table at end for votes in the 1996 election.) A correlation calculation yielded the following:
| Correlation | Rate |
| Democrat vote | -0.624 |
| Republican vote | +0.528 |
That is, the Democratic votes for the states had a 62% negative correlation with increasing ODR and the Republican votes had a 53% positive correlation. States with high occupational-death rate vote more Republican than Democratic and vice versa.
|
| This is a plot of the occupational-death rate (ODR) sorted by rank of the states compared to the Democratic votes and the Republican votes. (See table at end for the data.) Also shown are linear fits to the two votes. This shows visually the positive correlation of ODR with the Republican vote and the negative correlation of ODR with the Democratic vote. The lowest sixteen states are definitely Democratic and the highest eight states are definitely Republican. |
What can one conclude from these results? Whatever factors cause the large disparity for occupational-death rates between the various states also cause those states to tend to vote Republican. I believe that the main factors are:
My Republican native state, Oklahoma (rate=59.3), ranked 48 of 50 and my Republican adopted state, Virginia (rate=19.2), ranked 17 of 50 for increasing occupational-death rate in 1997-8.
| U.S. occupational injury deaths | 1996 election | |||||
| State | Deaths | Population | Deaths/Million | Democrat | Republican | Rank |
| Connecticut | 32 | 3282031 | 9.8 | 52.8% | 34.7% | 1 |
| New Hampshire | 12 | 1201134 | 10.0 | 49.6% | 39.6% | 2 |
| Rhode Island | 10 | 990819 | 10.1 | 59.7% | 26.8% | 3 |
| Massachusetts | 65 | 6175169 | 10.5 | 61.5% | 28.1% | 4 |
| Maine | 18 | 1253040 | 14.4 | 51.6% | 30.8% | 5 |
| New Jersey | 118 | 8143412 | 14.5 | 53.7% | 35.9% | 6 |
| Michigan | 149 | 9863775 | 15.1 | 51.7% | 38.5% | 7 |
| Delaware | 12 | 753538 | 15.9 | 51.8% | 36.6% | 8 |
| Ohio | 186 | 11256654 | 16.5 | 47.4% | 41.0% | 9 |
| New York | 302 | 18196601 | 16.6 | 58.3% | 30.0% | 10 |
| Maryland | 86 | 5171634 | 16.6 | 54.3% | 38.3% | 11 |
| Minnesota | 84 | 4775508 | 17.6 | 51.1% | 35.0% | 12 |
| Arizona | 86 | 4778332 | 18.0 | 46.5% | 44.3% | 13 |
| California | 614 | 33145121 | 18.5 | 51.1% | 38.2% | 14 |
| Iowa | 54 | 2869413 | 18.8 | 50.3% | 39.9% | 15 |
| Washington | 109 | 5756361 | 18.9 | 49.8% | 37.3% | 16 |
| Virginia | 132 | 6872912 | 19.2 | 45.1% | 47.1% | 17 |
| Pennsylvania | 233 | 11994016 | 19.4 | 49.2% | 40.0% | 18 |
| Hawaii | 24 | 1185497 | 20.2 | 56.9% | 31.6% | 19 |
| Illinois | 249 | 12128370 | 20.5 | 54.3% | 36.8% | 20 |
| Oregon | 73 | 3316154 | 22.0 | 47.2% | 39.1% | 21 |
| Wisconsin | 117 | 5250446 | 22.3 | 48.8% | 38.5% | 22 |
| Missouri | 125 | 5468338 | 22.9 | 47.5% | 41.2% | 23 |
| Texas | 475 | 20044141 | 23.7 | 43.8% | 48.8% | 24 |
| Utah | 51 | 2129836 | 23.9 | 33.3% | 54.4% | 25 |
| North Carolina | 187 | 7650789 | 24.4 | 44.0% | 48.7% | 26 |
| Florida | 376 | 15111244 | 24.9 | 48.0% | 42.3% | 27 |
| Indiana | 156 | 5942901 | 26.2 | 41.6% | 47.1% | 28 |
| South Carolina | 103 | 3885736 | 26.5 | 44.0% | 49.8% | 29 |
| Vermont | 16 | 593740 | 26.9 | 53.4% | 31.1% | 30 |
| Colorado | 112 | 4056133 | 27.6 | 44.4% | 45.8% | 31 |
| Nevada | 51 | 1809253 | 28.2 | 43.9% | 42.9% | 32 |
| Georgia | 237 | 7788240 | 30.4 | 45.8% | 47.0% | 33 |
| West Virginia | 56 | 1806928 | 31.0 | 51.5% | 36.8% | 34 |
| Louisiana | 139 | 4372035 | 31.8 | 52.0% | 39.9% | 35 |
| Nebraska | 54 | 1666028 | 32.4 | 35.0% | 53.7% | 36 |
| Tennessee | 179 | 5483535 | 32.6 | 48.0% | 45.6% | 37 |
| New Mexico | 58 | 1739844 | 33.3 | 49.2% | 41.9% | 38 |
| Alabama | 150 | 4369862 | 34.3 | 43.2% | 50.1% | 39 |
| Kentucky | 140 | 3960825 | 35.3 | 45.8% | 44.9% | 40 |
| South Dakota | 26 | 733133 | 35.5 | 43.0% | 46.5% | 41 |
| Arkansas | 91 | 2551373 | 35.7 | 53.7% | 36.8% | 42 |
| Kansas | 95 | 2654052 | 35.8 | 36.1% | 54.3% | 43 |
| Montana | 34 | 882779 | 38.5 | 41.3% | 44.1% | 44 |
| Idaho | 53 | 1251700 | 42.3 | 33.6% | 52.2% | 45 |
| North Dakota | 28 | 633666 | 44.2 | 40.1% | 46.9% | 46 |
| Mississippi | 128 | 2768619 | 46.2 | 44.1% | 49.2% | 47 |
| Oklahoma | 199 | 3358044 | 59.3 | 40.4% | 48.3% | 48 |
| Wyoming | 32 | 479602 | 66.7 | 36.8% | 49.8% | 49 |
| Alaska | 78 | 619500 | 125.9 | 33.3% | 50.8% | 50 |
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