Published annually, State Rankings features comprehensive state statistics across key measures in education, health, crime, transportation, taxes, government finance, and so much more. The editors compile useful statistics that otherwise take an enormous amount of time to research, making it a favorite resource on reference shelves throughout the United States and around the world. Overall state rankings are provided as well as a complete list of all sources used to compile the tables. The rankings have been updated using specific methodology explained in the introduction with the most current available data at publication. Explanatory notes on the source and data are also included to provide context to each statistical table. State Rankings compares every state and Washington, D.C. in the following areas: Agriculture Population Economy Environment Government finance Crime Education Geography Social welfare Defense

Published annually, State Rankings features comprehensive state statistics making it easy to compare states across key measures in education, health, crime, transportation, taxes, government finance, and so much more. The editors compile useful statistics that would otherwise take an enormous amount of time to research making it a favorite resource on reference shelves throughout the United States and around the world. The rankings have been updated using specific methodology explained in the introduction. Geographic and data notes are also included to provide context. State Rankings compares every state and Washington, DC, in the following areas: - Agriculture - Population - Economy - Environment - Government finance - Crime - Education - Geography - Social welfare - Defense - Health - Energy - Housing.

Published annually, State Rankings features comprehensive state statistics across key measures in education, health, crime, transportation, taxes, government finance, and so much more. The editors compile useful statistics that otherwise take an enormous amount of time to research, making it a favorite resource on reference shelves throughout the United States and around the world. Overall state rankings are provided as well as a complete list of all sources used to compile the tables. The rankings have been updated using specific methodology explained in the introduction with the most current available data at publication. Explanatory notes on the source and data are also included to provide context to each statistical table. State Rankings compares every state and Washington, D.C. in the following areas: Agriculture Population Economy Environment Government finance Crime Education Geography Social welfare Defense

Ranks states in terms of income, agricultural and industrial production, mortality rates, college graduates, divorce, debt, population change, highway fatalities, and taxes.

This study ranks the American states according to how their public policies affect individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. Updating, expanding, and improving upon the three previous editions of Freedom in the 50 States, the 2016 edition examines state and local government intervention across a wide range of policy categories -- from tax burdens to court systems, from eminent domain laws to occupational licensing, and from homeschooling regulation to drug policy. Freedom in the 50 States remains the only index that measures both economic and personal freedoms.

"As James Madison led America's effort to write its Constitution, he made two great inventions-the separation of powers and federalism. The first is more famous, but the second was most essential because, without federalism, there could have been no United States of America. Federalism has always been about setting the balance of power between the federal government and the states-and that's revolved around deciding just how much inequality the country was prepared to accept in exchange for making piece among often-warring states. Through the course of its history, the country has moved through a series of phases, some of which put more power into the hands of the federal government, and some rested more power in the states. Sometimes this rebalancing led to armed conflict. The Civil War, of course, almost split the nation permanently apart. And sometimes it led to political battles. By the end of the 1960s, however, the country seemed to have settled into a quiet agreement that inequality was a prime national concern, that the federal government had the responsibility for addressing it through its own policies, and that the states would serve as administrative agents of that policy. But as that agreement seemed set, federalism drifted from national debate, just as the states began using their administrative role to push in very different directions. The result has been a rising tide of inequality, with the great invention that helped create the nation increasingly driving it apart"--

This volume contains an Open Access Chapter. This volume explores the distinct allure of rankings in diverse empirical settings such as healthcare, the IT sector, the arts, professional sports, anti-slavery advocacy, the pharma industry, and educational governance.