Jump to content

Strange coincidence, guess which US state have the most Astronauts?


Pawelk198604

Recommended Posts

The State of Ohio i counted the most American astronauts comes from Ohio, which BTW was also State where Wright Brothers ware born?

 

I do not know why this is such a big coincidence, maybe it's just my Asperger :D  

Edited by Pawelk198604
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a play around with the number of astronauts against number of residents per US State (data from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut_birthplaces_by_US_state), and Ohio isn't actually particularly high. It has 1.81 astronauts per million inhabitants (current population). That's only 6th overall, behind Iowa, Indiana, Massachusetts and both Dakotas, and comparable to Colorado, Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania.

The real stand-out winner is DC, which has produced 6 astronauts per million inhabitants.

The full list is:

State Astronauts Population Astronauts/Million
DC 4 672,228 5.95
North Dakota 2 756,927 2.64
South Dakota 2 858,469 2.33
Iowa 7 3,123,899 2.24
Massachusetts 14 6,794,422 2.06
Indiana 12 6,619,680 1.81
Ohio 21 11,613,423 1.81
Connecticut 6 3,590,886 1.67
Colorado 9 5,456,574 1.65
New York 31 19,795,791 1.57
Pennsylvania 20 12,802,503 1.56
New Hampshire 2 1,330,608 1.50
New Mexico 3 2,085,109 1.44
Hawai'i 2 1,431,603 1.40
New Jersey 12 8,958,013 1.34
Oklahoma 5 3,911,338 1.28
Alabama 6 4,858,979 1.23
Michigan 12 9,922,576 1.21
Virginia 10 8,382,993 1.19
Maryland 7 6,006,401 1.17
Illinois 14 12,859,995 1.09
Tennessee 7 6,600,299 1.06
Delaware 1 945,934 1.06
Wisconsin 6 5,771,337 1.04
Kansas 3 2,911,641 1.03
South Carolina 5 4,896,146 1.02
Mississippi 3 2,992,333 1.00
Missouri 6 6,083,672 0.99
Montana 1 1,032,949 0.97
Rhode Island 1 1,056,298 0.95
Minnesota 5 5,489,594 0.91
North Carolina 9 10,042,802 0.90
Texas 23 27,469,114 0.84
Washington 6 7,170,351 0.84
Maine 1 1,329,328 0.75
Oregon 3 4,028,977 0.74
Arkansas 2 2,978,204 0.67
Utah 2 2,978,204 0.67
Idaho 1 1,654,930 0.60
California 23 39,144,818 0.59
Georgia 6 10,214,860 0.59
West Virginia 1 1,844,128 0.54
Nebraska 1 1,896,190 0.53
Kentucky 2 4,425,092 0.45
Florida 9 20,271,272 0.44
Louisiana 2 4,670,724 0.43
Arizona 2 6,828,065 0.3
Alaska 0 738,432 0
Nevada 0 2,890,845 0
Vermont 0 626,042 0
Wyoming 0 586,107 0

According to the data, there have been 332 US astronauts, out of a current population of 321.4 million, which means the average number of astronauts per million inhabitants is 1.03

Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, peadar1987 said:

I had a play around with the number of astronauts against number of residents per US State (data from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut_birthplaces_by_US_state), and Ohio isn't actually particularly high. It has 1.81 astronauts per million inhabitants (current population). That's only 6th overall, behind Iowa, Indiana, Massachusetts and both Dakotas, and comparable to Colorado, Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania.

The real stand-out winner is DC, which has produced 6 astronauts per million inhabitants.

The full list is:

State Astronauts Population Astronauts/Million
DC 4 672,228 5.95
North Dakota 2 756,927 2.64
South Dakota 2 858,469 2.33
Iowa 7 3,123,899 2.24
Massachusetts 14 6,794,422 2.06
Indiana 12 6,619,680 1.81
Ohio 21 11,613,423 1.81
Connecticut 6 3,590,886 1.67
Colorado 9 5,456,574 1.65
New York 31 19,795,791 1.57
Pennsylvania 20 12,802,503 1.56
New Hampshire 2 1,330,608 1.50
New Mexico 3 2,085,109 1.44
Hawai'i 2 1,431,603 1.40
New Jersey 12 8,958,013 1.34
Oklahoma 5 3,911,338 1.28
Alabama 6 4,858,979 1.23
Michigan 12 9,922,576 1.21
Virginia 10 8,382,993 1.19
Maryland 7 6,006,401 1.17
Illinois 14 12,859,995 1.09
Tennessee 7 6,600,299 1.06
Delaware 1 945,934 1.06
Wisconsin 6 5,771,337 1.04
Kansas 3 2,911,641 1.03
South Carolina 5 4,896,146 1.02
Mississippi 3 2,992,333 1.00
Missouri 6 6,083,672 0.99
Montana 1 1,032,949 0.97
Rhode Island 1 1,056,298 0.95
Minnesota 5 5,489,594 0.91
North Carolina 9 10,042,802 0.90
Texas 23 27,469,114 0.84
Washington 6 7,170,351 0.84
Maine 1 1,329,328 0.75
Oregon 3 4,028,977 0.74
Arkansas 2 2,978,204 0.67
Utah 2 2,978,204 0.67
Idaho 1 1,654,930 0.60
California 23 39,144,818 0.59
Georgia 6 10,214,860 0.59
West Virginia 1 1,844,128 0.54
Nebraska 1 1,896,190 0.53
Kentucky 2 4,425,092 0.45
Florida 9 20,271,272 0.44
Louisiana 2 4,670,724 0.43
Arizona 2 6,828,065 0.3
Alaska 0 738,432 0
Nevada 0 2,890,845 0
Vermont 0 626,042 0
Wyoming 0 586,107 0

According to the data, there have been 332 US astronauts, out of a current population of 321.4 million, which means the average number of astronauts per million inhabitants is 1.03

This conclusion is wrong since there have been 332 astronauts ever, but there have been a lot more than 321 million people in the US since astronauts exist. The average number of astronauts per million inhabitants would be 1.07 if there had been 332 astronauts this year... Or if there had been only 321 million americans born since the 50's

 

Well it's not actually wrong if you want to consider "the number of astronauts that have existed relative to the American population in 2015 only" but this last one is a pointless comparison 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Hcube said:

This conclusion is wrong since there have been 332 astronauts ever, but there have been a lot more than 321 million people in the US since astronauts exist. The average number of astronauts per million inhabitants would be 1.07 if there had been 332 astronauts this year... Or if there had been only 321 million americans born since the 50's

 

Well it's not actually wrong if you want to consider "the number of astronauts that have existed relative to the American population in 2015 only" but this last one is a pointless comparison 

It's making the assumption that the relative populations of the states haven't changed drastically since the start of spaceflight, and using it as a basis for comparison. It's not really pointless, as it still gives a good indication of which states are the "spaciest".

 

I've redone the data with the average population of the states between 1920 and 1980, when most of the astronauts would have been born. This actually comes out even worse for Ohio, it drops out of the top 10:

DC 4 649,787 6.16
Colorado 9 1,610,711 5.58
New Mexico 3 752,37 3.99
Hawai'i 2 559,057 3.56
New Hampshire 2 599,765 3.33
North Dakota 2 641,745 3.11
South Dakota 2 665,984 3.00
Massachusetts 14 4,811,999 2.91
Indiana 12 4,125,329 2.91
Virginia 10 3,527,107 2.84
Connecticut 6 2,196,939 2.73

Ohio comes in 16th, with 2.51.

That's about the best analysis I'm willing to do for it, I'm not going through every individual astronaut and finding the state population in the year of their birth!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The reason DC stands out it because most astronauts are military, and you have more chances of enroling in the military if you are from a military family, and there is probably a higher proportion of military in DC than in other states.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it's hard to identify trends and particularly the underlying causes from such a small sample size. Three of the four DC astronauts are indeed military. The fourth is Lisa Nowak, the Mission Specialist who is famous for all the wrong reasons...

Most of the top states are small populations that have produced three or four astronauts. A lot of the bottom states are small populations that happen not to have produced any astronauts. I'd put it more down to noise in the data than anything else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, peadar1987 said:

It's making the assumption that the relative populations of the states haven't changed drastically since the start of spaceflight, and using it as a basis for comparison. It's not really pointless, as it still gives a good indication of which states are the "spaciest".

 

I've redone the data with the average population of the states between 1920 and 1980, when most of the astronauts would have been born. This actually comes out even worse for Ohio, it drops out of the top 10:

DC 4 649,787 6.16
Colorado 9 1,610,711 5.58
New Mexico 3 752,37 3.99
Hawai'i 2 559,057 3.56
New Hampshire 2 599,765 3.33
North Dakota 2 641,745 3.11
South Dakota 2 665,984 3.00
Massachusetts 14 4,811,999 2.91
Indiana 12 4,125,329 2.91
Virginia 10 3,527,107 2.84
Connecticut 6 2,196,939 2.73

Ohio comes in 16th, with 2.51.

That's about the best analysis I'm willing to do for it, I'm not going through every individual astronaut and finding the state population in the year of their birth!

Yeah it's pretty good to determine the "spaciest"  (i like this word :) ) state, but it's not telling an actual number of astronauts/population since the astronaut population is counted over 60 years and the general population is counted at a single point (even if it's an average value over a period of time)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

52 minutes ago, Hcube said:

Yeah it's pretty good to determine the "spaciest"  (i like this word :) ) state, but it's not telling an actual number of astronauts/population since the astronaut population is counted over 60 years and the general population is counted at a single point (even if it's an average value over a period of time)

Of course. That's never what I was trying to do. The figure I gave gives the average spaciness of each state, so you can compare how spacey each state is in comparison with the others. It's not a number that has an actual, useful significance on its own

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, saabstory88 said:

It's because Ohio is aweful, and they want to get as far away as physically possible I live in Pittsburgh, and can confirm that Ohio is the worst. 

Well, I moved to Pittsburgh from Ohio, and it wasn't nearly far enough. So now I live in Cali. Hope that does it. Getting into astronaut training is pretty hard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just about all astronauts eventually live near the Clear lake Texas. Just say'in. Come to think about it almost all astronauts like to make trips to Kazakstan, hmmm.

When it rains it rains, but when it really rains, its el Nino . . . . . . coming to a cali near you. In hollywood they call it a cliff hanger, during el Nino what do the cliffs hold onto?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...