Undeniably, the pandemic brings depression, grief, and loss – all bring Americans loneliness this holiday.
This holiday season is very different from the past. We’re living in the COVID-19 era, which might mean there will be no celebrations, no family gatherings. In other words, this holiday season may be a lonely season for many Americans.
50 U.S states and the District of Columbia were measured against 7 different metrics (as below) to reveal the loneliest states these holidays. The higher the OVERALL score – with 10 being the highest possible score, and 0 being the lowest possible – the lonelier the state is.
Methodology
We researched 7 different factors that can make U.S residents lonely this Christmas and New Year Eve. To standardize our results and find the overall score, all 7 factors have been evenly ranked between 0-10. The lowest possible score is 0 and the highest possible score is 10. Here is the formula we used to get our results:
Score (i)=10 . ( ( (x(i) – x (min) ) / ( (x(max) – x(min) ) )
Metrics
Unemployment Rate
No one can fully enjoy Christmas without a job. When you’re unemployed, you won’t have money for celebrations. That’s why we take this factor into account.
Data is sourced from: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm (As of September 2020)
Percentage of Immigrants
Many immigrants are still struggling to blend in with their communities. That’s why it’s hard for them to find a companion this holiday season.
We looked into the percentage of the foreign-born population in each state.
Data is sourced from: census.gov (As of 2019)
Number of COVID-19 Reported Cases
Undeniably, the pandemic brings depression, grief, and loss – all bring Americans loneliness this holiday.
Data is sourced from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths/ (As of November 24th, 2020)
Social Distancing Policy
We looked into the detailed policies of each state. The stricter the policies, the higher the “loneliness score”.
Data is sourced from:
https://www.nga.org/coronavirus-mitigation-actions/
(As of November 20th, 2020)
Please click on the image below for more information, including a list of the most lonely and least lonely states this 2020 holiday season.
LegalReader thanks our friends at Click Cupid for permission to publish an excerpt of this piece. The original is found here.
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