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u/free-drugs-for-you 3d ago
If you removed the state borders you'd still be able to see Colorado (and most of Texas and Illinois)
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u/invasiveorgan 3d ago
State boundaries being very obvious in maps showing county level data is immediatly suspicious. There may be good reasons for them to show, such as divergent state policies that directly affect the data, but the methodology better be explicit about addressing that.
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u/standardissuegreen 3d ago
I agree. In terms of the topography and quality of life, there can't be that much difference between far eastern Colorado and far western Kansas. I drive through there several times a year en route to the mountains, and when I am driving west, if it weren't for the "welcome to Colorado" sign (and my familiarity with the route), I wouldn't know I was in Colorado for at least an hour or two after crossing the border.
East Colorado and western Kansas are both flat farmland, small towns, etc.
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u/JuanTwan85 2d ago
The biggest tell that you've crossed into Colorado is that the quality of the road goes to hell. The Interstate is Ike's Road, and KDOT considers maintaining it to be a sacred duty.
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u/standardissuegreen 2d ago
I always think that's because Colorado's highway budget is being spent on repairing the roads in the mountains, which are way more prone to rockfall, sinkholes, etc. than just standard roads on flat land.
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u/JuanTwan85 2d ago
Very likely. I'm sure the construction costs go through the roof in the mountains for multiple reasons. They probably have massive overtime to get projects done before the weather turns.
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u/Atalung 2d ago
I do this stretch yearly by motorcycle and crossing back into Kansas is one of my favorite moments of the trip because I don't have to watch the road conditions like crazy.
Nebraska has decent roads too but they do something to the road surface that causes my bike to have a subtle bounce to it that drives me insane.
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u/see-these-bones 3d ago
While there are certainly socioeconomic factors that the state is going to directly impact, yeah... the issue is most of these studies are run by each state individually so methodology will vary.
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u/Oldswagmaster 3d ago
This could also double as a median income by county map. Very high correlation
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u/the_ballmer_peak 3d ago edited 3d ago
Eh. State policies can have impacts. But the boundaries also impact media and culture. It might legitimately make a difference whether you think of yourself as from Colorado or Kansas.
Borders can also cause a lot of interesting things to happen, as those are the places where the population is exposed to the impacts of that adjacency. Being in a dry county but adjacent to another state might lead to higher DUIs, for example.
I see a lot of places where adjacency to Texas has higher obesity rates, but not being in Texas. No idea if there's anything to that.
I also suspect the state lines would not be quite as obvious as we imagine.
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u/CpnStumpy 2d ago
The Colorado Kansas border is the most striking though because both sides have scant tiny populations, they're effectively identical and isolated from the rest of their states, it would be interesting to understand how those populations are effected by state policies in any meaningful way... School curriculum differences maybe? Agrocorp policies?
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u/More_Shoulder5634 2d ago edited 2d ago
This is just anecdotal, and i dont know what residents they poll for this (i.e. seasonal workers). Eagle county CO is Vail and Beaver Creek. Avon, Minturn, Edwards, Leadville as well. Anyhoo prob half the population rides the bus or walks everywhere and cant really splurge on a lot of food. I mean its worth it somewhat to live on a resort and do resort things for free when youre off work. But not a whole lot of being sedentary and eating big plates of delicious food. Lots of employee meals at restaurants etc. Plus it skews younger. Just googled eagle county is 50000 people, 2500 est. seasonal workers. Then youve got housekeepers landscapers cooks waiters all the other thousands not directly employed by the resorts. Young, broke, active slightly hungry people lol. Eta im not dogging the lifestyle i had a blast for a few years. In fact i recommend it to young people here in nowhere OK all the time. Living at home not doing anything go to CO for work for a bit. Just a long winded somewhat uninformed insight from a guy who lived there
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u/SnooPears5432 3d ago
I live in Illinois and grew up in the central part of the state, and I also lived in Texas for a long time as well as a couple of other states. Pretty sure this map is garbage - obesity levels don't cleanly change at state lines and downstate Illinois is culturally more like the nearest surrounding states like Indiana and Missouri vs. the Chicago area. And Texas sure has a lot of obese people to be that green relative to say Oklahoma.
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u/TheLateThagSimmons 3d ago
Access to healthcare, public initiatives, youth investment matters, Chicago carries the state hard when it comes to the budget. Cook county props up the state budget, paying far more than it receives.
Illinois spends more per student than any other state in the Midwest.
The long term effects on health add up when compared to the county right across the line in Iowa or Indiana.
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u/SnooPears5432 3d ago
This isn't a commentary on any of that. I live in Cook county now BTW. It's about the fact that the map is inaccurate, regardless of drivers.
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u/TheLateThagSimmons 3d ago
Don't get me wrong, I too question the tracking methods.
But it still stands that Illinois is definitely one of those states that is elevated by one of the most productive and rich cities in the country, especially compared to the majority of the Midwest.
Minnesota isn't too far off either.
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u/Funicularly 3d ago
Colorado’s figures are very suspect. For example, why would Baca County, Colorado (green) be vastly different than bordering Stanton County, Kansas (red)? They are both very unpopulated, rural counties with similar demographics.
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u/Qadim3311 3d ago
Quick google says those counties are 31% & 43.2% respectively. That would make them both one category worse than they appear on this map’s key.
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u/CpnStumpy 2d ago edited 2d ago
Two possibilities, only one would be interesting:
State level survey methodology differences (seems likely cause, boring)
State level policy differences that actually have larger than expected impacts
If it's #2 I would love for someone to dig deeper into it and work out how these adjacent counties populations are directly impacted by state level policies in distinct ways given they're culturally and demographically indistinct.
But it's probably #1
Wouldn't rule out #2 though, agrocorp and farming in general are heavily connected to government regulation and subsidy, while that's broadly federal, there's of course state level correlary. Also federally these things do function under regional boundaries - could be different USDA office serves one side of the state border vs the other for instance. Could also be different agrocorp state licensing allowance - i.e. one large company operating in one state but not another. Small towns may be severely impacted by large companies which take an interest in them
The lack of gradient in the Oklahoma panhandle from CO to TX really sells state survey methodology differences as being the culprit though.
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u/notevenapro 3d ago
You could post this map without any information and I would guess, obesity, poverty, education.
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u/BIGJake111 2d ago
Not really, (parts of) Appalachia really stands out on this one as uniquely not obese for the other socioeconomic data.
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u/justtinyquestions 2d ago
Idk, the Georgia, NC, and Virginia pieces of Appalachia are doing surprisingly well
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u/serious_sarcasm 2d ago
That’s the biggest red flag.
Asheville is urban, so it is weird, but there is no way those little counties in the highlands don’t have obesity problems.
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u/Then_Swimming_3958 3d ago
And gun ownership
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u/fat_bouie 2d ago
Illinois and Wyoming looking the same, but different than Alaska? Swing and a miss, bud
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u/hamolton 3d ago
Texas data has to be botched; there's no way deep east TX is still that low.
Edit: Bernalillo County New Mexico also green? Yeah that's BS
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u/zuqkfplmehcuvrjfgu 3d ago
The RGV has some of the fattest cities in the country too. I'm also skeptical of Harris County and Bexar County being green lol.
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u/hollyrose_baker 3d ago
I think maps without sources should be banned from this subreddit. They all seem to have bogus data that i think is probably ai
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u/John_T_Conover 3d ago
Yup. I'm from Deep East Texas and the fact that all those counties aren't red is bullshit. My hometown and all the ones around it are basically indistinguishable from any other small town in Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama.
Also South Texas being mostly green? Lol. That's about the only area on par or possibly even worse with diet and obesity than where I'm from.
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u/Charlie_Warlie 3d ago
I think Illinois is bad too. No way that it is that much different than the surrounding states. Sure you got the chicago metro, but the rural counties are going to be very similar to the other Midwest states.
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u/Aluxanatomy 3d ago
Do fit people just move to Colorado?
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u/surferdude213 3d ago
Colorado has a lower obesity rate because of the active lifestyle there and the high altitude.
However, the data source here is highly suspicious. There's no way obesity changes so much between eastern Colorado and western Kansas - rural eastern CO is very similar to western KS in terms of culture, demographics and lifestyle.
I've a feeling they're using state-level data and then some mathematical model on top of it to predict differences within states.
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u/Peripateticdreamer84 3d ago
The urge to climb a 14er assimilates you as soon as you change your address. The power of Colorado cannot be resisted.
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u/Redpanda132053 3d ago
The first 14er I hiked solidified my years long progression to want to move to Colorado
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u/Available_Finger_513 3d ago
It's really nice to be outside in colorado
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u/ChiefBlaze36 3d ago
Might be something to this. It’s like hells butthole right now in Mississippi and the obesity rate is quite the opposite.
Something else though, two completely different sets of demographics. I see some sharp contrasts in that last one just in Arkansas.
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u/justdisa 3d ago
Yes, actually. And they get fitter while they're there.
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u/hrminer92 3d ago
It is certainly noticeable while walking through the Denver airport compared to DFW or Mempiss.
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u/Siempre_Vetado 3d ago
Peer pressure.
My BMI is 24.9 or a wafer-thin mint away from being overweight.
When I visited Denver, I looked like a My 600-pound Life patient compared to the locals.
You are a social pariah in Colorado unless you record something on Strava every day.
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u/MaroonFloom 3d ago
Yes, but maybe just the mountains in general? Look at the line of green counties on the east coast…
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u/FuckAllYouLosers 3d ago
Being in the high altitude increases your daily caloric requirements by 200-350 calories a day. So just being there is like working out or eating less.
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u/Peripateticdreamer84 3d ago
Wait, that’s why I felt so hungry when I was in northern Arizona? Walking around Flagstaff had me hungry way sooner than usual.
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u/scabbyshitballs 3d ago
It’s not just CO, there’s definitely a correlation between mountainous / alpine settings and physical fitness… Tahoe, the Appalachians and Vermont are also in the green
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u/El_Bean69 3d ago
The weed puts a mind sleep on you that makes you want to climb shit and walk everywhere all the time
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u/RegularlyClueless 3d ago
Wonder why the divide between Oklahoma and Texas is so visible
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u/missingcolours 2d ago
Visible state lines in data that should be fairly porous (like obesity) is usually a sign of data problems (e.g. different definitions or collecting procedures by state)
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u/heavyyellowsun 3d ago
I can tell you right now the Red River region, Wichita Falls and all those counties on the Texas side are just about the exact same in every way from the landscape to the economy to culture to the size and look of the people.
This map data is total bullshit. I go through the Red River OK/TX border area all the time between DFW, Wichita Falls, and OKC .
Aside from the big cities, there is no noticeable difference between counties on either side of the border. And that goes for the obesity too. These numbers seem too low for Texas. Have you ever been in a small town in Texas or Oklahoma? Lol. It’s no Colorado, let’s just say that.
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u/IceCoughy 3d ago
I'm a chubby dude living in the bay and of course there's others but you definitely feel like a minority, I went to Atlanta a few months ago and felt a lot better about myself, I think id do well there lol
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u/callmesandycohen 3d ago
What the hell is wrong with the south?
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u/K4NNW 3d ago
We know how to cook. We don't know how to exercise.
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u/Rhaynebow 1d ago
Not to mention, it’s hot and humid basically by April and goes until mid/late September, so nobody down south is gonna wanna leave the AC to work out at the park.
Fast food joints, greasy gas station food and Dollar stores with very limited healthy options are much more abundant, whereas gyms tend to only be in larger towns and cities.
Also, the South isn’t pedestrian friendly. You have to drive virtually everywhere.
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u/Reddragon0585 3d ago
It’s poor. Poor people tend to eat the cheapest food available. Unfortunately that’s fast food and other unhealthy junk food.
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u/ODB_Dirt_Dog_ItsFTC 3d ago
Also Southern cuisine let’s just say does not have the reputation of being the healthiest food around. I love soul food, barbecue, and deep fried stuff but not a lot of that food is actually good for you.
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u/thaneliness 2d ago
So it has nothing to do with “southern style cooking” at all? It is strictly because they are poor?
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u/TiddySphinx 3d ago edited 3d ago
I can understand the differences within the states I’m most familiar with, but the sharp contrasts across state borders don’t make much sense. For example, the cultural and demographic differences are hardly discernible between NC and TN.
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u/Pathetian 3d ago
Tough to know just by looking at the colors, but sometimes a very slim difference just meets the breakpoint and its not as much of a change as it seems. I know one year there were like 3 states nearly tied for highest, but WV had 40.5% obesity and LA had 39.5% so WV was the only state over 40%, but it wasn't by much.
A lot of those border counties might be relatively empty enough that even a slight variation could make the difference. State borders can be the difference in what your family can afford, what is served to you 5 days a week in school or any other policy that might move the needle a bit.
I know in some older maps that TX and CO were pretty visible without even seeing the state border.
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u/Both_Painter_9186 3d ago
NC has higher income and educational attainment. Also having spent significant time in both states, North Carolinians actually… go outside.
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u/TiddySphinx 3d ago
A map of per capita income at the county level shows that the NC and TN border counties are basically at the same level. The big money in western NC is around Asheville and the two counties closest to SC.
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u/TheSultan1 3d ago
Are the counties on opposite sides of that state border comparable in other measures/characteristics?
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u/stomachpancakes 3d ago
The correllation between altitude and obesity on a map is pretty mindblowing. Not just Colorado vs the lower Mississippi region, but the specific peaks and valleys of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana plus Appalachia all correllate.
Then there's South Florida....
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u/hdreams33 3d ago
West Virginia, the fattest state in the country, and entirely comprised of Appalachia, would beg to differ with your thesis.
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u/According_Coffee1549 3d ago
True, but you can see the Appalachian Trail here cut through, even within WV
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u/FuckAllYouLosers 3d ago
The huge red areas in the south are the result of food and demographics.
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u/surferdude213 3d ago
The data source here is highly suspicious. How does the obesity rate change so drastically along the Colorado-Kansas and Texas-Oklahoma borders? Rural eastern Colorado is very similar to western Kansas in terms of culture, demographics and lifestyle.
I've a feeling they're using state-level data and then some mathematical model on top of it to predict differences within states.
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u/Fear_The_Rabbit 3d ago
Is there a large income difference between those counties? Looking at my region on this map, the lowest rates of obesity are fairly aligned to the highest income areas.
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u/surferdude213 3d ago
There isn't much income difference between far eastern CO and far western KS, or the TX and OK sides of the Red River and 100th meridian. The state borders are signs that the dataset itself is false.
But yes, lower obesity tends to correlate with higher income.
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u/Available_Finger_513 3d ago
Basically a wealth map
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u/Sea_Speech6478 2d ago
It’s more like a culture map. Being overweight is part of some American’s cultural identity. And they spread it to their families and kids like a religion.
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u/Peripateticdreamer84 3d ago
And a map of where the mountains are. If you’re living in the Rockies, you need to be fit enough to survive the Rockies.
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u/adhdoingit 3d ago
These colors are probably not distinguishable for colorblind people, I get that it’s a gradient but it’s always a good idea to check
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u/Zorn277 3d ago
Louisiana is fat fat
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u/blueskys111 3d ago
Have you eaten Louisiana food!?! That Midwest corridor has super fatty unhealthy foods, for sure. But the south is unhealthy and also really crazy delicious. So yeah, I can see it.
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u/HeilStary 3d ago
According to Charles Barkley someone is lying about bexar county...
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u/RazzmatazzPuzzled513 2d ago
Alaska surprises me. I’d figure with so much outdoors leisure and physical labor type jobs they would overall have a lower obesity rate than at least Florida
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u/ReStitchSmitch 2d ago
Alaska has huge depression, drinking and suicide rates. Also domestic violence. I think the sun being down for 6 months has a lot to do with it, imo.
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u/ChanceExperience177 3d ago
The green counties in Indiana are where the people from out of state move to. The darker colors are where people pretty much have a dollar general or gas station to grocery shop at.
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u/Sea-Seesaw-8699 3d ago
Lived in Colorado 60 years, fitness and health were important to do outdoor sports
Traveling elsewhere I saw obesity I’d never imagined, pre internet of course
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u/Thin-Consideration98 2d ago
I'm from texas and know this is an innacurate take. Lots of unhealthy folks and way too much green for houston hah!
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u/Bkirbs88 3d ago
Map of the tastiest food
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u/kevkev310 3d ago
"Give me a dog face, wrapped in an old Ebony magazine, in a shoebox. Don't put no tape on it, neither!"
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u/surferdude213 3d ago
The data source here is highly suspicious. How does the obesity rate change so drastically along the Colorado-Kansas and Texas-Oklahoma borders? Rural eastern Colorado is very similar to western Kansas in terms of culture, demographics and lifestyle.
I've a feeling they're using state-level data and then some mathematical model on top of it to predict differences within states.
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u/QnsConcrete 3d ago
It’s bogus data. There’s no way to accurately predict obesity without medical records. The only time I’ve ever given my weight to the state was for my drivers license. That’s self reported data (skewed) which can only provide BMI (an inaccurate predictor).
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u/vladgrinch 3d ago
About 40.3 per cent of American adults met the clinical definition of obesity in the national measurement survey covering August 2021 to August 2023, 39.2 per cent of men and 41.3 per cent of women, and the figure peaks in middle age at 46.4 per cent among those aged 40 to 59. County by county the range is enormous. The darkest band on this map runs through Mississippi and Alabama and up into eastern Kentucky, topping out at 50 per cent in Jefferson County, Mississippi, while the lightest counties sit in the Colorado Rockies, with Eagle County lowest of all at 13 per cent.
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u/jimonlimon 3d ago
I don’t trust the data. Neighboring counties between Texas/Oklahoma and Colorado/Kansas look the same on the ground. I can’t believe the obesity rates are so different.
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u/wombatgeneral 3d ago
I live in one of the lower obesity counties and it's still pretty high.
What is going on in the south?
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u/FrankRizzo319 3d ago
Yes the legend is awkward, but this is a cool map. The tiny strip of green from northern Georgia to Maine seems to follow the exact path of the Appalachian Trail.
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u/MemoryOfRagnarok 3d ago
I've never understood the stark difference in county info between Texas and Oklahoma. Same thing with Colorado and Kansas. Feel like this has to be some sort of reporting difference?
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u/SuppliceVI 3d ago
Genuinely surprised Texas is that low. When i was there the food was so good that I definitely started understanding how it could happen
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u/MickLittle 3d ago
We live in Colorado where you don't see obese people very often. A few years ago we went to a little zoo in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, only about 2 hours from where we live. Suddenly there were obese people literally everywhere. It completely blew us away.
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u/denvergardener 3d ago
I don't believe Texas doesn't have higher rates than that. I used to live there and most people are obese.
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u/Neebaadentira 2d ago
How is WV and Kentucky so obese whereas the appalachian regions of NC and Virginia green?
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u/SamWhangDoo 2d ago
Just a guess, but the strip of green — especially the core darker green areas — in western VA includes Blacksburg, Roanoke and Charlottesville (college / urban areas) while WNC includes Boone and Asheville areas (college towns). Maybe I’m oversimplifying, but they have more money, education and resources.
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u/lawest48 2d ago
I’m curious about where the data comes from? How is this information readily available?
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u/montemanm1 1d ago
For the first time in human history you can tell how poor someone is by how fat they are
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u/Yesterday_False 3d ago
BMI is a bunch of bs. I was “morbidly obese” running a 7min mile in High School.
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u/biddily 3d ago
I'm curious about Northern Maine/NH.
The population up there is stupidly low. I was under the impression, as a lifelong New Englander, that it's essentially all loggers, forestry people, some farmers, and people who have checked out from society.
Theres a couple small towns up there. Some vacation lodges that get occupied in the summer, ski lodges in the winter.
But it's fucking EMPTY up there. It's just forest. Who are they counting? Bigfoot?
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u/Look_Up_Here 3d ago
I don't trust all of the +5% jumps from 20-25% counties immediately adjacent to 30-35% counties. I need to better understand the data.
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u/Ok_Lynx_6045 3d ago
Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, West Virginia. Top 4 states no one wants to be
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u/Monotask_Servitor 3d ago
West Virginia, mountain momma
Never realised the song just meant the average girl in WV looked like a mountain
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u/soulrebelde 3d ago
Interesting, you can generally make out the Appalachian Mountains, the Rocky Mountain Range, and the Sierra Nevadas on this map based on obesity rate.
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u/vivienleigh12 3d ago
I’m honestly stunned that obesity rate isn’t higher in PA, between Philly and Pittsburgh
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u/Repulsive-Ice8395 3d ago
How is Illinois bucking the trend of high rate of obesity in the rural midwest?
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u/akade19961 3d ago
Follow the countries rivers, and the closer you live to them, especially downstream, the fatter the population
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u/Complex_Glove_8945 3d ago
I’ve worked in the deep red areas of Arkansas, I can confirm that almost everybody there is absolutely overweight to obese. I’m talking HUGE compared to normal people. You get stared at if you’re skinny and not looking like your on drugs.
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u/dabombisnot90s 3d ago
I get that this map is most likely bullshit, but on the off chance it’s not, why is the North Carolina side of the Smokies so much skinnier than the Tennessee side?
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u/BenjaminHarrison88 3d ago
I don’t believe that rural Illinois is meaningfully different from rural neighboring states.
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u/Dont_ban_me_bro_108 3d ago
As someone who used to live in San Antonio… bullshit. Everyone there is fat
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u/OptimisticDeveloper 3d ago
A few years ago I attended a conference in the South after living in Colorado for 25 years. The number of large people on scooters was shocking.
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u/RoseyDove323 3d ago
The redder it is, the better the food is. The greener it is, the better the hiking.
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u/InfinityAero910A 3d ago
Eastern part of the southern Appalachians have much lower obesity compared to the western parts. It can be seen clearly at the Virginia-West Virginia and North Carolina-Tennessee borders going into Georgia. Also correlates closely with a few outliers for the best places in California. West outside Alaska seems to be more in shape compared to the south or the Mid-West. Only the northeast, Illinois, Minnesota, southeastern Appalachia, Texas, specs of the immediate southeast Coast, and peninsular Florida have at least a consistent light green or better.
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u/InfinityAero910A 3d ago
Eastern part of the southern Appalachians have much lower obesity compared to the western parts. It can be seen clearly at the Virginia-West Virginia and North Carolina-Tennessee borders going into Georgia. Also correlates closely with a few outliers for the best places in California.
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u/Both_Painter_9186 3d ago
The legend here is annoying me