Cartogram of Think Tanks in the United States

Dec 8, 2017
Cartogram map of think tanks in the United States

The geographically accurate cartogram above represents the size of the states based on their number of think tanks.  Washington DC contains one out of every five think tanks in the US.  Think tanks are clearly an east coast phenomenon.

Findings

  • Washington DC accounts for the greatest number of think tanks in the US.  It alone is responsible for just over one out of every five think tanks in the country.
  • Delaware and Alaska, the states with the least think tanks attribute 0.16 percent of the total think tanks in the EU each.
  • Three states and the capital (DC, Massachusetts, California, and New York) are responsible for just under half the think tanks.
  • Wyoming is the only state without a single think tank.

Caveats

  • The data is from 2016.
  • The borders represent the area of the state if it were based on the number of think tanks.  The larger the state, the more think tanks it has.
  • The map is presented in an Albers equal-area conic projection.
  • The choropleth classification is based on Jenks or natural breaks.
  • The two insets have the same scale as the main map.
  • Wyoming has no think tanks and thus does not appear on the map.

Details

Think tanks dominate east of the Mississippi River.  The only state to have more than 50 think tanks west of the Mississippi is California whereas six states meet that threshold on the east.  Only three states west of the Mississippi have more than 25 think tanks (California, Texas, Colorado) whereas 13 states meet the threshold east of the Mississippi.

The total reported number of think tanks in the United States is 1,834.

Data

StateThink TanksPercent of US Total
Washington DC39721.65
Massachusetts1779.65
California1699.21
New York1447.85
Virginia1055.73
Illinois623.38
Maryland502.73
Texas472.56
Connecticut442.4
Pennsylvania422.29
New Jersey361.96
Colorado311.69
Florida311.69
Michigan311.69
Georgia291.58
Ohio251.36
Minnesota231.25
North Carolina231.25
Washington231.25
Wisconsin221.2
Arizona211.15
Indiana211.15
Maine211.15
Rhode Island201.09
Tennessee191.04
Missouri180.98
Kansas170.93
Alabama160.87
Oregon160.87
New Hampshire130.71
Hawaii120.65
Kentucky110.6
Oklahoma110.6
Iowa100.55
Louisiana100.55
Mississippi100.55
Arkansas80.44
Montana80.44
Nebraska70.38
New Mexico70.38
Utah70.38
South Carolina60.33
West Virginia60.33
South Dakota50.27
Vermont50.27
Idaho40.22
Nevada40.22
North Dakota40.22
Alaska30.16
Delaware30.16
Wyoming00

Sources

McGann, James G.  2017.  "2016 Global Go to Think Tank Index Report."  University of Pennsylvania.  http://repository.upenn.edu/think_tanks/12/?utm_source=repository.upenn.edu%2Fthink_tanks%2F12&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages.

Filed under: Projecting Power