The Intersected States of America

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

A few years ago, I was enchanted with the Venn diagram explorations published by EleVR, a now shuttered virtual reality startup helmed by M Eifler, Vi Hart, and Andrea Hawksley. They wrote about a making a virtual Venn diagram museum, a Venn diagram house, and even a Venn digram piano. Their post about Venn diagrams in light reminded me that color theory is mind-blowing!

Since I read those posts, I have been thinking about unions and intersections in other aspects of life, including on maps. For your edification and/or delight, I present some intersected states of America. Each map shows the states that satisfy one or both of two different traits. Solid colors indicate the states that satisfy one trait, stripes indicate states that satisfy both. If the image is not accessible to you, the text below each map lets you know which states are shaded which colors for which reason. I’ve included my information sources in the map captions as well. These maps are just for fun, so I considered Wikipedia-type sources sufficient and did not do a lot of extra work verifying each item. If you need any of this information for more serious purposes, I encourage you to verify it using more reliable sources.

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*States shaded in dark green to show that an evergreen is their state tree: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota

States shaded in light green to show that there is green in their flag: Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin

States that are striped to show both are true: California, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Washington

States shaded in yellow to show that historic route 66 went through them: California, Missouri, New Mexico

States shaded in blue to show that the largest employer is Walmart: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia Wyoming

States that are striped to show both are true: Arizona, Illinois, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas

States shaded in magenta because they start with a W: West Virginia, Wisconsin

States shaded in pink because they have had women as governors: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont

States that are striped to show both are true: Washington, Wyoming

States that are shaded red because there are more cars than people: Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Vermont

States that are shaded black because there are more cows than people: Kansas, Oklahoma

States that are striped because both are true: Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming

States shaded light pink to show their population is younger on average than the median age of the country: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming

States shaded dark purple to show that more people moved out of them than in in 2018: Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio

States that are striped to show both are true: California, Kansas, North Dakota

States that are shaded blue because a President was born there: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina

States that are shaded black because a President died there: Indiana, Maryland, Tennessee, Washington D.C.

States that are striped to show both are true: Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia

States shaded in magenta to show that they do not have a dental school: Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, South Dakota

States shaded in blue to show that they produce sugarcane or sugar beets: California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Texas, Washington

States that are striped to show that both are true: Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming

States shaded in purple because their state mottos are in Latin: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, West Virginia

States shaded in orange because at least 20% of the population is Hispanic or Latinx: California, Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, Texas

States that are striped to show that both are true: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico

States shaded in black to show that skunk ownership is legal in some circumstances: Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

States shaded in green to show that recreational marijuana use is decriminalized: Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Vermont, Washington, Washington D.C.

States that are striped to show that both are true: Michigan, Oregon

*The legend on the first map is incorrect. Dark green is for states with evergreens as their official trees, and light green is for states with green on their flag. Nevada has both and should be striped.