State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America brings together essays and reporting by 50 distinguished Americans, each writing about one state. Edited by Sean Wilsey and Matt Weiland, it’s a treasure trove of stylish writing, quirky insight, and unexpected revelations. The back of the book has its attractions, too—namely, 30 pages of tables ranking the 50 states on a range of measures, from number of people without health insurance, to highest (and lowest) temperatures, and more besides. Today, we bring you the top ten states for . . .

Percentage of adults aged 65 and over who have had all of their natural teeth extracted

1. West Virginia (40.5)
2. Kentucky (38.9)
3. Tennessee (34.9)
4. Mississippi (31.5)
5. Louisiana (28.9)
6. Oklahoma (28.3)
7. Alabama (27.2)
8. Maine (26.2)
9. Missouri (24.1)
10. Pennsylvania (23.9)

 SOURCE: Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Percentage of adults aged 65 and over who have had all of their natural teeth extracted.

To see how the other 40 states rank on this and other indicators, see State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America.

In State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, 50 of America’s foremost writers present original pieces of reportage and memoir that capture the 50 states as they are today. All of which is great and well worth reading. Tucked in the back of the book, though, is something almost as compelling—30 pages of tables ranking the states on an eclectic but revealing range of measures, such as divorce rate, alcohol consumption, temperature (high and low), voter participation, crime, and even number of roller coasters per capita. Today . . .

Breastfeeding Rate

1. Montana (88)
2. Oregon (88)
3. Washington (88)
4. Colorado (86)
5. Idaho (86)
6. Alaska (85)
7. Vermont (85)
8. Arizona (84)
9. California (84)
10. Utah (84)

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Percentage of children ever breastfed.

To see how the other 40 states rank on this and other indicators, see State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America.

Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us tells how an entire nation got swept up in real estate mania, complete with predatory subprime loans, get-rich-quick house-flipping schemes, and outrageous mortgage fraud. It casts the business story—the collapse of the mortgage markets and its global impact on the economy—as the product of a decades-long project of social engineering by the U.S. government to make homeownership possible for those who had never been able to attain it before. In practice, this meant pushing millions of underqualified buyers into ownership, with disastrous consequences for both these owners and the larger economy.

The book is full of eye-popping numbers reflecting the craziness and catastrophe that our mania for real estate wrought. Herewith, a sampling.

—In the summer of 2008, just one third or fewer of Californians could afford to buy an entry-level home in L.A. or Oakland.

—In 2004, the nation’s homes were collectively worth $19 trillion, $12.5 trillion of which was home equity yet to be tapped. That year, homeowners took out another $1 trillion in home equity loans and credit lines, and spent most of the money to pay off other debts.

—Between 2006 and 2010, Congress’s economists calculate, the home mortgage interest income tax deduction will grant more than $400 billion to the nation’s homeowners.

—As a consequence of the company’s advertising campaign targeting young families, minorities, and single parents, Fannie Mae’s marketing department determined that 90 percent of all black Americans saw upwards of twenty Fannie Mae commercials in 1988.

—Some 140,000 subprime borrowers were either in foreclosure or close to it by the end of 1999.

—Since 1997, when New York State rewrote its rent laws, roughly 173,00 apartments in New York City alone have lost their shield of security, meaning there’s less and less to stop owners of apartment buildings from kicking tenants out and selling the flats one by one.

—The typical family’s income in New York’s poorest neighborhoods (including Harlem, Flatbush, and Red Hook) is little over $30,000 a year, though houses in these same neighborhoods go for well over $1 million.

—One third of the nation’s population is currently renting.

—By 2006, more than 174,000 professionals worked in the securities markets, earning an average salary of nearly 340,000—and that doesn’t count the average $136,000 bonus each employee was estimated to make at the end of that year.

—In 2007, the typical Manhattan apartment sold for $800,000, triple what it cost in 1996, the year before New York State’s legislature repealed rent regulations protecting tenants.

—The Case-Shiller Index tracks the rise and fall of real estate values over time based on the resale prices of existing homes in twenty metropolitan areas. In 2000, Case-Shiller set the Index at 100 points. In the spring of 2008 it stood at almost 170 points, after peaking near 190. The index has been tracking some cities since 1987. Working back from the 2000 baseline, Chicago started out at 55; in 2008, a decline had brought the index down to 150. Boston rose from 70 to 162 (peak was 182); Seattle from 58 to 175, following a high point of 192. In all three cities in the fall of 2008, prices were stable or on an upward trend, despite buyers’ persisting difficulties in qualifying for mortgages.

—The typical homebuyer lives in a 1,800-square-foot home and wants one that’s nearly one-third bigger.

—Homebuilders produced and sold more than 140,000 new houses in the Sacramento area between 1996 and 2006, typically larger than 2,500 square feet.

—In 1991, Americans borrowed about $370 billion to buy homes. By 2004, they were taking out $1.2 trillion.

—In New York City, where the (then) seven big U.S. investment banks were headquartered, the average securities industry bonus in 2006 was nearly $190,000, or nearly triple what it had been four years earlier.

State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America brings together essays and reporting by 50 distinguished Americans, each writing about one state. Edited by Sean Wilsey and Matt Weiland, it’s a treasure trove of stylish writing, quirky insight, and unexpected revelations. The back of the book has its attractions, too—namely, 30 pages of tables ranking the 50 states on a range of measures, from number of people without health insurance, to the rate of toothlessness, to highest (and lowest) temperatures, and more besides. Today, we bring you the top ten states by . . . divorce rate.

Divorces Per Year by State of Occurrence Per 1,000 Residents

1. Oklahoma (6.6)

2. Nevada (6.4)

3. Arkansas (6.1)

4. Wyoming (5.2)

5. Idaho (5.0)

6. West Virginia (5.0)

7. Alabama (4.9)

8. Kentucky (4.9)

9. Tennessee (4.9)

10. Florida (4.8)

SOURCE: Division of Vital Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control. Number of divorces per year by state of occurrence per 1,000 residents.

To see how the other 40 states rank on this and other indicators, see State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America.

State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America brings together essays and reporting by 50 distinguished Americans, each writing about one state. Edited by Sean Wilsey and Matt Weiland, it’s a treasure trove of stylish writing, quirky insight, and unexpected revelations. The back of the book has its attractions, too—namely, 30 pages of tables ranking the 50 states on a range of measures, from number of people without health insurance, to the rate of toothlessness, to highest (and lowest) temperatures, and more besides. Today, we bring you the top ten states by . . . temperature.

Highest Monthly Temperature

1. Arizona (105.0°)
2. Nevada (104.5°)
3. California (98.8°)
4. Texas (98.5°)
5. Oklahoma (93.9°)
6. Arkansas (93.6°)
7. Louisiana (93.3°)
8. Utah (93.2°)
9. Kansas (92.9°)
10. New Mexico (92.8°)

SOURCE: National Climatic Data Center.

To see how the other 40 states rank on this and other indicators, see State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America.

In State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, 50 great American writers bring us 50 indelible essays, each on one state of the union, and each marked by writerly insight, unexpected detail, and crisp prose. The book’s appendix offers another way of reading America—30 pages of tables ranking the states on a variety of measures (some enjoyably quirky), from temperature to divorce rate to numbers without health insurance. Today we bring you the top ten states by . . .

Classic Movie Theaters and Drive-ins Per Capita

1. Rhode Island (143.1)

2. North Dakota (111.5)

3. Oklahoma (108.2)

4. Missouri (102.1)

5. Illinois (83.1)

6. Wyoming (80.5)

7. New York (74.0)

8. Montana (66.3)

9. Idaho (65.8)

10. Massachusetts (65.5)

SOURCE: Cinema Treasures. Movie theaters considered classic theaters or drive-ins as of July 2006, per 1 million population.

To see how the other 40 states fare on this and other measures, see State by State.

In State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, 50 great American writers bring us 50 indelible essays, each on one state of the union, and each marked by writerly insight, unexpected detail, and crisp prose. The book’s appendix offers another way of reading America—30 pages of tables ranking the states on a variety of measures (some enjoyably quirky), from temperature to divorce rate to numbers without health insurance. Today we bring you the top ten states by . . .

Roller Coasters Per Capita

1. New Hampshire (5.3)

2. New Jersey (4.7)

3. Ohio (4.0)

4. Missouri (4.0)

5. Pennsylvania (3.8)

6. Nevada (3.3)

7. Utah (3.2)

8. Colorado (3.2)

9. Maryland (3.2)

10. Maine (3.0)

SOURCE: The Roller Coaster Database, 2006. Number of steel and wooden roller coasters per capita, expressed per 1 million population.

To see how the other 40 states fare on this and other measures, see State by State.

In State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, 50 of America’s foremost writers present original pieces of reportage and memoir that capture the 50 states as they are today. All of which is great and well worth reading. Tucked in the back of the book, though, is something almost as compelling — thirty pages of tables ranking the states on an eclectic but revealing range of measures, such as divorce rate, alcohol consumption, temperature (high and low), voter participation, crime, and even number of roller coasters per capita.

Incarceration Rate

Incarceration rates for inmates sentenced to more than one year, expressed per 100,000 residents. Source: U.S. Department of Justice (PDF)

1. Louisiana (736)
2. Texas (724)
3. Oklahoma (622)
4. Mississippi (574)
5. South Carolina (550)
6. Nevada (542)
7. Alabama (509)
8. Arizona (507)
9. Georgia (502)
10. California (478)

The numbers that follow are collected from So Damn Much Money: The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government by Robert G. Kaiser. They pretty much speak for themselves.

Learn more about the book here.

$358 million: Amount in contributions collected by the RNC and the party’s House and Senate committees in the two years prior to the 1994 elections.
$782 million: Amount in contributions collected by the RNC and the party’s House and Senate committees in the two years prior to the 2004 elections.

$77 million: Combined campaign spending for every candidate for the House and Senate (34 Senate and 435 House races) in 1974
$343 million: Combined campaign spending for every candidate for the House and Senate (34 Senate and 435 House races) in 1982

$100,000: Cost of most winning House campaigns in the 1960s and 1970s
$349,000: Cost of most winning congressional campaigns by 1982

608: Number of Political Action Committees registered with the Federal Election Commission in 1974
3371: Number of Political Action Committees registered with the Federal Election Commission by 1982

$12.5 million: Total of PAC contributions to all House and Senate races in 1974
$83.1 million: Total of PAC contributions to all House and Senate races by 1982

700: Number of trade associations with headquarters in Washington in 1968
1,600: Number of trade associations with headquarters in Washington by 1978

$250: Standard “requested contribution” for a political fundraiser in Washington (i.e. the charge of admission charged to lobbyists) before the 1994 congressional elections
$1000: Standard “requested contribution” immediately after Republicans took over the House following those elections

$51,200: Amount in contributions from the banking and credit card industries collected over five years by the 18 Senate Democrats who voted for 2005 legislation making it more difficult for consumers to evade their debts by declaring personal bankruptcy.
$20,200: Amount collected from the same sources in the same period by Senate Democrats who voted against the law.