The Geography of the Seven Deadly Sins

By Miss Cellania in Travel on Apr 27, 2009 at 4:40 pm

Geographers from Kansas State University have plotted the seven deadly sins of the nation. They began with Nevada only, but expanded the project for the entire United States, using statistics for each county on crime, income, STDs, and other data. They call it “a precision party trick — rigorous mapping of ridiculous data.” The results show that the area I live in (Southeast Kentucky) is only high in gluttony, which is calculated by the number of fast-food restaurants per capita. At the link, you can pull up a map of each of the seven deadly sins. In this map of the lust “hot spots”, red is above average, while blue is below average. Link -via Metafilter

Tags: geography, maps, sins, statistics

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DaveL
Apr 27th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Lustville, US… here I come!
Shae
Apr 28th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
funny how the red area is concentrated around the bible belt…
ted
Apr 30th, 2009 at 6:58 am
Tired of the whole seven deadly sins routine. There are so many more sins we could focus on.
Sarah, NC
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Success!
J
May 3rd, 2009 at 1:06 pm
The higher concentration of red is due to STDs which disproportionately affect minorities. Indian reservations and blacks in the South are probably what the red signifies not necessarily the “Bible belt”.
Doug in PA
May 3rd, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Funny you should point the finger at minorities, J. The data seems to suggest you may be right about reservations as hot spots, but I’m looking at areas in the north and west with large black populations and I don’t notice any similar effect, outside of the Detroit area. I’m betting it’s a combination of poverty and resistance to sex education that will actually provide a verifiable explanation for the hot spots.
Timmy
May 3rd, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Being poor and ignorant is a sin, better let Jesus know, I think he didnt get that memo.
Heraldblog
May 3rd, 2009 at 4:53 pm
The reddest area in Michigan looks like Kent County, home of Grand Rapids, a city that once had the distinction of the most churches per capita in the US.
OGWiseman
May 3rd, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Timmy – Nobody said being poor and ignorant was a sin. Doug said it made you more likely to get STDs. Also, Jesus was poor, but he wasn’t ignorant. Or at least, that’s not how I read the bible.
Jason in Michigan
May 3rd, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Heraldblog, Kent County, home of Grand Rapids, is white on the lust map. The red counties in Michigan are Barry and Eaton, which are south and east of Kent County.
Geoff
May 3rd, 2009 at 8:26 pm
I can’t believe people are actually taking this crap seriously.
Nylund
May 3rd, 2009 at 8:38 pm
That one blue area nearly exactly matches the Appalachian mountain range.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/55/Appalachian_region_of_Un ited_States.gif

That is kinda interesting. Anyone want to speculate as to why?
J
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Doug in PA response:

Merely pointing to the flaw in the methodology. STDs are more a condition of poverty than being oversexed. The previous poster jumped to a conclusion about the “Bible Belt” I felt my post balanced him out.
IKNOWWHY
May 4th, 2009 at 1:16 am
I know why. I grew up in Appalachia and it is really one of the most “old-timey” Christian areas of the country. The notion that the “Bible Belt” somehow increases the amount of STDs sure as hell doesn’t explain Utah. It is a scientific and demographic fact, that can be looked up using CDC data, that some minorities have greater amounts of STDs. We can resist pointing out the 1000 pound elephant in the corner all we want, but he is still taking up a damn lot of space.
Not a Racist
May 4th, 2009 at 1:18 am
I feel like I should preface this with some junk about not being a racist – but, ah, whatever. The bluest areas are also the whitest parts of America. Ta-dah!
Been there
May 4th, 2009 at 1:21 am
I agree. However, look at South Dakota! I’ve been there. LOTS of mullets, big hair, Bon Jovi CDs, Camaros with one orange fender. Those people are very isolated and apparently giving each other a LOT of gifts.
saganhill
May 4th, 2009 at 6:51 am
Really? There are no such things as sin. Sin is a religious dogma invented by man to control the masses.
PackMan
May 4th, 2009 at 10:46 am
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/mapGallery/images/black.jpg
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/mapGallery/images/americanindian.jpg

Amazingly enough, this “Lust” map doesn’t correlate to religion, it correlates almost perfectly to race.

The only hotspot that isn’t explained by looking at Black or American Indian concentrations is the eastern NM/western TX hotspot.
It's Me
May 4th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Couldn’t this be more accurately described as a map of condom usage?
kws
Feb 16th, 2010 at 5:56 am
The red areas in western South Dakota are were the major Sioux reservations are located.
Joyce
Dec 4th, 2010 at 11:09 am
This gives a whole new meaning to red states and blue states!

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