Wisconsin Economics Map -- Madison J.

Based on the demographic population maps that I used in the first blog post, I wanted to focus on examining income and how money affects other parts of life for the economics side of Wisconsin’s data. 

I separated the data into four separate categories: Income, MPD Business Patterns, and Education. All of these things are big talking points in political campaigns and influence voting.

A quick Google search will say that the average household income in WI is $74k per year. Looking at a 5-year estimate map of the Median Household Income, we can see that households that make the most amount of money are closer to the edges of the state and closer to the cities within WI and in neighboring states, Minnesota and Illinois. This is not unique to just Wisconsin, but important to note because of what/who exists in the neighboring land. Towards the end of the blog, I have included a map which roughly estimates where each Native American tribe in WI is located. If we compare that map to the income data, we can see that people who live in these counties tend to earn less income. 

Another quick Google search will say that WI’s primary business exports are in manufacturing machinery, which brought in around 6 billion dollars in 2023. When I set the map to MPD Business Patterns focusing in on the total employees in manufacturing jobs per county.  

Price County had the most at 44.7%, followed by Waupaca County at 44.5%, and Trempealeau County at 42.8%. Comparing income to MPD Business patterns, some of the lower-income counties, like Price County, are working more blue-collar jobs.

Wisconsin is home to 85 colleges and universities. Over 160,000 students are enrolled in the University of Wisconsin system alone. Before starting a Social Explorer map for education data, I noticed in my demographic population map that WI has a notable Native American population and a few federally recognized Indian reservations. I also noticed that the College map and the Native population map are almost visually inverted with the reservations towards the Northern parts of the state and the colleges towards the Southern parts. Using Social Explorer, I set a map to the ACS five-year estimate of the Population 25 years or older with a Bachelor's Degree or better. This map mimics the household income data, not surprising, but still notable. It’s also worth noting that the counties with more blue-collar workers have less data for college-level education.

https://dpi.wi.gov/amind/tribalnationswi

https://mycollegeselection.com/maps/colleges-in-wisconsin-map/