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Population Wars

The most comprehensive analysis of key U.S. state metrics - anywhere.

Where does your state rank for spending per citizen? On affordability? For good governance? Don't take our word for it - download the data yourself.

Population Wars: who will win?

Remote working is driving accelerated shifts in people and office re-location. In 2020, with “data-driven” buzzwords related to COVID and elections, we were curious what the data itself would say about where people and businesses are moving – and why.

Our project is defined by missives we believe influence 3 stakeholders – elected officials, company leaders, and employees. No-one paid us to build this, and all we have done is available for free.

Once we built the data set and dove in, we were amazed at what we found.

Welcome to Population Wars.

Join the fun!

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5 KPIs to measure state government effectiveness

How does your state score in each category?

Population Wars

Downloadable data sets and slide decks covering 5 key state performance metrics:
  • Budget Spend
  • Life Metrics
  • Job Creation
  • Affordability
  • Governance
 Learn More
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Budget Spend Learn More
Life Metrics Learn More
Job Creation Learn More
Affordability Learn More
Governance Learn More

The Population Wars Project Team

We put out the call for a diverse, non-partisan, all-volunteer team to compile, categorize and analyze data. Over 250 applied.

We started by looking at all 50 U.S. states by 5 distinct criteria. When we set out to find a single source of truth for how states compete in key categories, we couldn’t find one. The data was incomplete, making effective comparative analysis impossible.

Data-driven

If you want to predict the future, join us. Our team includes Ph.D.s, data scientists, and students with at least a basic toolkit to wrangle data.

Diverse

Our radically inclusive team represents diversity in every way. Our common thread? A willingness to receive feedback to grow.

Volunteer

We moonlight as futuristic problem solvers. Want to share insights or join the project? Join us.

"I joined the project to quickly answer questions. I couldn't believe how hard the data was to find - and that it offered different insights than I expected."

Budget Spend

Follow the money if you want to understand a problem - never has this been more true than in government. From pension funding to budget deficits, from income tax revenue to fees and fines, use our dashboard to discover where the money flows.

Get Data

Life Metrics

Is life good? One common issue with certain factors is that they seem un-data-oriented. We called BS, and began gathering the data that we hypothesized would impact residency.

See Metrics

Job Creation

The future of work is here. People can move (and increasingly, work) anywhere - but will they? Who will build businesses, and where will the others work? Find out more in the report.

Dive into the Data

Affordability

Affordability has two sides of the equation - how much someone needs to spend, and how much they make on average. Our affordability rankings gave us clear action steps to recommend for governments looking to improve basic living standards.

View Rankings

Governance

Is change on the horizon? Always. One strong indicator of the way the winds of change may blow is governance in a state. Will income taxes go up? Will there be more jobs in certain sectors? Will vaccine mandates be rolled out faster? See for yourself.

Get Data

"Answering questions about how better to operate governments - taxes, spending, and outcomes - is much more nuanced than I thought, but what I wasn't surprised about was this - many locations are underserving constituents."

5 KPIs to measure state government effectiveness

How does your state score in each category?

Population Wars

Downloadable data sets and slide decks covering 5 key state performance metrics:
  • Budget Spend
  • Life Metrics
  • Job Creation
  • Affordability
  • Governance
 Learn More
$0

Out of stock

 Add to cart

FAQs

Just buy the Population Wars product – it’s free! You’ll get a link to download the data.