A new study from Kremp examines an important aspect of motherhood. They created a scoring system to determine the best and worst locations for mothers to live in. Thanks to the multitude of details the team provided, we can see exactly how they came to their conclusions. The criteria for the scoring system examine diverse ways a community can support mothers and analyze the health and well-being of mothers and children living in each state. While something like a motherhood experience is subjective, these criteria give a fair way to compare motherhood in various locations.

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The methodology relied on these factors:

• Women’s Median Earnings
• Gender Wage Gap
• Child Care Costs
• Percentage of Mothers in Good or Excellent Health
• Percentage of Children in Good or Excellent Health
• Percentage of the Population Under 18
• State School System Scores
• Percentage of Parents Who “Definitely Agree” Their Child is Safe in School
• Weeks of Parental Leave Available
• Paid Family Leave Availability
• Job Protection

Based on these criteria, these ten states scored the highest:

• Massachusetts
• Maryland
• Connecticut
• Kentucky
• Delaware
• South Dakota
• New York
• Rhode Island
• Florida

While these ten states received the lowest scores:

• Montana
• Arizona
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• South Carolina
• Oklahoma
• Louisiana
• Michigan
• Nevada
• West Virginia
• New Mexico

The study and map are helpful precisely because motherhood is such a subjective experience. One mother may consider education of the utmost importance, while another may not be so concerned with this but focused on childcare costs and healthcare. While the study aimed to take all these factors together and score them as a whole, concerned moms can use this data to draw their own conclusions and judge the best location for their family’s needs.

The “best” state for moms often depends on the type of mother. A working mom might have vastly different priorities from a stay-at-home mom. A working mom would likely agree that Massachusetts is the best state for them because of a smaller wage gap and plenty of paid parental leave. In fact, Massachusetts offers the most parental leave compared to all other states. A mom of one child will have unique needs compared to a mom with four children. The age of the children also plays a role. Do the children need daycare, or are they all school-aged? A single Mom may consider Virginia the best state for their situation because of the low cost of living compared to average wages, though once again, Massachusetts has a lot to offer.

The map aspect of the study’s design gives us interesting insights, too. The color patterns show us that many of the best states for motherhood are in the Northeast, while many of the worst states are in the South. This map certainly gives parents something to think about if they are considering a move or planning a future family.

A fascinating new study from OxiFresh shows us that cities can be scored and analyzed on how clean they are. Cleanliness may seem subjective, but the team took a brilliant approach to quantifying and scoring cities with a method that issued cities a score out of 100 in seven categories.

They used these seven areas to form their scoring system:

• Population density: number of people per square mile
• Rodents: Percentage of homes with signs of mouse and rat infestations
• Cockroaches: Percentage of housing units with cockroach infestations
• Vandalism: Percentage of homes without vandalism and abandoned buildings in a half-block radius
• Litter: Percent of homes without litter surrounding the property within a half-block radius
• Air quality: Number of days in 2024 that scored “Good” or higher on the Air Quality Index
• Tap water quality: Average number of contaminants in the municipal drinking water

The strength of this graphic lies in the details. We can see exactly how each of the 25 cities analyzed scored so that we can consider them individually and as part of a whole.

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The team’s scoring system determined that these cities are the cleanest:

1. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Oregon/Washington
2. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington
3. Rochester, New York
4. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan
5. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minnesota/Wisconsin
6. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
7. Richmond, Virginia
8. Denver-Aurora-Centennial, Colorado
9. Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, Arizona
10. Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas

And at the bottom of the list, we find these ten cities:

1. New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York/New Jersey
2. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California
3. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pennsylvania/New Jersey/Delaware/Maryland
4. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, Texas
5. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, Washington DC/Virginia/Maryland/West Virginia
6. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Illinois/Indiana
7. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas
8. Birmingham, Alabama
9. Cincinnati, Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana
10. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

We can see which factors the team considered the strongest indicator of whether or not a city is clean. For example, waste management obviously has a huge influence on a city’s cleanliness. The team included population density on the list because higher populations produce more garbage and may strain the local waste management system. However, even large cities can manage waste effectively with the right investments. The Portland metro area is the cleanest on the list, and it has made a strong investment in robust recycling and waste removal, which pays off. The city’s clean streets and parks lead to lower pollution levels and fewer rodents and insects, all adding to the city’s excellent cleanliness score.

The lowest scorer, the New York City metro area, has struggled with trash removal for decades. The city is full of back alleys that tend to collect rubbish, grime, and pests. These nests of trash and garbage lead to pollution, unpleasant smells, and the city’s famous rat infestation. As the biggest metro area in the country, though, the city has a lot of challenges to overcome to get cleaner.

The way this map and graphic present information lets us draw conclusions and ask new questions. How did your city score? Do you agree with the team’s methodology?

Americans are known for being industrious and hard-working, but are all states created equal in the hours they devote to work? A new map from Qualtrics can give us the answer. The team calculated the percentage of time Americans spent working last year, then color-coded each state based on where it fell on the spectrum. The colorful map shows us that all states fell somewhere within the range of 16% and 27% of last year spent on labor. States on the high end of the spectrum have a green hue, and states on the low end have a pink hue, with average time in the center of the scale represented in shades of blue. The result is an easy-to-read chart showing which state residents worked the most and the least.

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While the range the map represents isn’t huge, workers certainly notice a difference between 16% and 27% of the year spent on the job. What can cause such a big discrepancy? The map helps us get some insights into work culture throughout the nation. For example, residents of Utah spent the most time at work out of all 50 states, and they also have some of the lowest unemployment levels in America. This suggests that plentiful work means lots of time spent laboring, or maybe it implies that Utah residents genuinely enjoy working.

We can also see the effects of low wages on hours spent at work. In states where wages are lowest, like Mississippi, Alabama, South Dakota, and West Virginia, residents worked longer hours, most likely to earn what they need to get by. We can also see this in states with high living costs, like Colorado. It’s an expensive state to live in, and workers there spent more time on the job. We can speculate that the need for more wages pushes employees to work more.

Industry can also play a part in work hours. We already know that Alabama and Mississippi workers are spending a lot of time in the workplace, but we also have to consider that there are a lot of manufacturing jobs in these states. These jobs often come with a high demand for long shifts that exceed 40 hours a week. On the other end of the spectrum, we can see that high availability of part-time work can lead to lower work hours. Connecticut residents worked the least amount of time last year, which is clearly because 29% of the workforce has a part-time job. Other states with the lowest work hours include Michigan, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon, Washington, and Texas.

This map is a fascinating insight into American work culture and how it varies across the nation. The best maps and studies give us statistics that can provide us with a bigger picture of an issue like labor, and this map certainly delivers.