The chart above shows transportation-based carbon dioxide emissions broken down by population in US states. It is no surprise that Alaska where travel by bush plane is so common takes the top spot.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the most per capita emissions, Alaska, and the state with the least, New York, is 13.48 metric tons.
- Alaska emits 4.95 times the per capita carbon dioxide that New York does.
- The mean per capita transportation-based carbon dioxide emissions for the 50 states is 6.35 and the median 5.92.
- Only three states emit more than ten metric tons per person of carbon dioxide: Alaska, North Dakota, and Wyoming.
Caveats
- Population data is from 2010.
- Emissions data is from 2013.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredths.
- The road network is very limited in Alaska, so much so that the state capital is not connected by road, and one in 78 people are pilots.
Details
Excluding Alaska (which is a unique case), this metric has a loose correlation with vehicle ownership rates and a loose indirect correlation with vehicle ownership rates per mile of roadway. It should be interesting to take a look at what the relationship between these is.
The United States as a whole emits 5.64 metric tons of carbon dioxide per person from transportation sources annually ranking it under West Virginia and just above Idaho.
Sources
United States Census Bureau. "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2016." Accessed March 21, 2018. https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=PEP_2016_PEPANNRES&src=pt.
United States Department of Transportation. 2015. "State Transportation by the Numbers." Accessed March 21, 2018. https://www.bts.gov/sites/bts.dot.gov/files/legacy/_entire.pdf.