Who Loves 12MC in the United States?
Who loves the Twelve Mile Circle website the most in the United States? No surprise this time, it’s Washington, DC.
I examined the subset of 12MC visitors arriving on the website from the United States and compared it to state populations in order to derive per capita ratios. Yes, we all understand that the District of Columbia is not a state. It is considered a "state equivalent" for certain statistical purposes by the US Census Bureau, and that’s good enough for me. I know I mention that every time I equate the District to a State. I do that only to prevent random one-time visitors (not you guys) from mentioning the same thing in the comments. It’s a defensive maneuver.
By far, 12MC has its deepest penetration of readership in Washington, DC. It is possible, even probable, that one could enter just about any restaurant, club, shop, office building or apartment in Washington, DC and multiple people would have visited the Twelve Mile Circle website. That’s both humbling and a little difficult for me to wrap my head around.
Per capita visitors drop off quickly from there. By and large it still meets my preconceived notions. Mid-Atlantic states such as Virginia, Maryland and Delaware all occupy the top tier. That was my logical guess before I ran the analysis and the numbers tell a similar story. I focus a lot of attention on geo-oddities in the United States, and that’s even more true for my home base in the Mid-Atlantic. I generate a lot of local content and it attracts lots of local readers. Case closed.
However I encountered one big surprise. Let’s set-aside Washington, DC since it’s not a "real" state. The state that supplied the highest per capita ratio of visitors to the Twelve Mile Circle was… ALASKA! Huh?!?
I figured Alaska would do well. I’ve written any number of articles that featured Alaskan content because it’s such an incredible location for geo-extremes. Anytime there’s a northern this or a remote that it’s likely to involve Alaska. My article index map is flush with Alaska links. In addition to that, I traveled to Alaska a couple of summers ago and wrote a slew of travelogues:
- Four Runways – Four Miles
- Kenai Adventure, Part 1
- Kenai Adventure, Part 2
- Kenai Adventure, Part 3 – Wildlife
- Kenai Adventure, Part 4
Wrap all that Alaskan focus together and it results in an impressive number of visitor from the 49th states. Throw-in their small population and it creates a powerful per capita ratio. I didn’t think it could possibly be higher than Virginia, my beloved Commonwealth. Nonetheless, that’s where the math led me.
The U.S. per capita ratios allow me to explore a little deeper because I’ve recorded numerous visitors from every state, territory or district. I can flip this one on its head and determine who avoids 12MC the most. We know the Mid-Atlantic and Alaska craves more 12MC. What are the states that can truly live without it?
Some things never change. I look back to the very early days of the website. One stubborn state didn’t send a single visitor to 12MC for the longest time. I wrote Arkansas (finally) Checks In on the happy day I recorded that initial visitor. Since then I’ve counted another 1,498 Arkansans, however that still doesn’t elevate it from last place. No state dislikes 12MC more than Arkansas.
Alabama and Oklahoma came in a close second and third. I have a decent amount of content for all three of the laggards, or at least no less than surrounding states, so I have to imagine that geo-oddities don’t resonate as much with those audiences. Maybe I can turn that around if I spend some concentrated time traveling there someday and create more travelogue articles. It seemed to work for Alaska.
