18.7. Most Populated and Least Populated States

We’re going to use another set of data (about the states) to give us insight into how we analyze the pollution data.

The top three largest states in population are:

State

Population

California

38,332,521

Texas

26,448,193

New York

19,651,127

And the three smallest are:

State

Population

District of Columbia

646,449

Vermont

626,630

Wyoming

582,658

The three largest states in land area are Alaska, Texas, and California. The three smallest are Connecticutt, Delaware, and Rhode Island.

The three richest states (by per capita income) are Maryland, Alaska, and New Jersey. The three poorest are Arkansas, West Virginia, and Mississippi.

18.7.1. Do bigger or richer states have more pollution?

What causes more pollution?

  • Maybe bigger states have more stuff and that leads to more pollution?

  • Maybe smaller states have more things crammed into a smaller place, and that leads to more pollution?

  • Maybe richer states have more industry, and that leads to more pollution?

  • Maybe more populous states have more people (so more cars and houses…) and that leads to more pollution?

Let’s give you a way of asking these questions. Let’s write a program to get the average pollution for a state.

Note

Discuss topics in this section with classmates.

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