It’s the era of Big Data – which means it’s also the era of slicing and dicing data to make it understandable and interesting (and, ultimately, actionable). Infographics are one way to do this; maps are another.
Today we’d like to celebrate another way: the Top 10 list. Here are a few of our recent favorites…
Huffington Post: Top 10 States for Well-Being
For the last six years, Gallup-Healthways has published data on which Americans are the happiest and healthiest, called State of American Well-Being.
The Huffington Post turned this data into Top 10 States for Well-Being, noting 2013′s surprise winner (North Dakota) and non-winner (Hawaii, which took the top spot from 2009 to 2012).
Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota, America’s happiest state. Source: The Huffington Post
Movoto: Top 10 Safest Cities
The real estate listings portal Movoto publishes numerous top 10′s, including a look at the Top 10 Safest Cities (out of the country’s top 100 metros).
Irvine, CA, takes the no. 1 spot. Cities in California, Arizona and Texas dominate the list, making up 80% of the top 10 safest metros.
To develop the list, Movoto used data from the 2012 FBI Uniform Crime Report and weighted cities based on numbers of murders, violent crimes, property crimes and total crimes. (See how Maponics breaks down crime data in its Context™ Crime Scores product.)
The Fountain at Irvine Spectrum. Image source: Wikipedia
Realtor.com: Top 10 Markets for First-Time Home Buyers in 2014
Realtor.com ranks top 10 ideal locations for first-time home buyers based on five factors: market popularity, prices, inventory, time on market and unemployment.
It turns out Florida is the best state overall for first-time buyers, with Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Orlando and Jacksonville all finding a place on the list. The very best city for new home buyers to put down roots, however, is Pittsburgh, PA.
Maponics Context™ Real Estate Sales, Real Estate Inventory and Real Estate Foreclosure also provide valuable information for home buyers, including average sales price, how many foreclosures are in process and how many homes are on the market and many more – all projected onto real-life geographies, such as Neighborhood Boundaries.
The median asking price for property in Pittsburgh is just $135,000; this Steel City home is listed at $134,500. Image source: Realtor.com
Washington Post: America’s Most Challenging High Schools
America’s Most Challenging High Schools (which is actually a national ranking list, not a top 10) ranks high schools based on number of college-level tests that are given and number of graduates who passed at least one of these tests. The highest scoring high school is American Indian Public Charter in Oakland, CA.
Maponics Context™ School Rankings also scores public schools based on state rankings, average math and reading test scores and more, and projects them onto School Boundaries.
Students at the top-ranked public high school, American Indian Public Charter in Oakland, CA. Image Source: The Washington Post
Maponics’ Top 10 Lists
Of course, as a data provider, we have lots of data ourselves – and we’ve found that Top 10 lists can illuminate our datasets in interesting ways. Here are the Top 10 lists we’ve created so far:
- Top 10 Most Walkable US Cities
- Top 10 Most Affordable Neighborhoods with the Best Schools
- Top 10 Fastest Growing ZIP Codes