The last two columns here resulted in an amazing number of reader emails as well as a massive amount of comments online. Some suggested that I compare Florida with states that “are blue and have democratic governors and/or legislatures, like California, NY or Illinois.” Fair enough.

So I decided to compare some of the things readers commented on. Education, traffic congestion, homeowner insurance, healthcare affordability, life expectancy, and happiness index. Overall Florida fared well. I picked six states that had been mentioned by readers: Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and California. From this point on, I am going to use state initials for the sake of space. All data points are where the states rank among all 50 states.

Education

There were several categories I looked at to see how Florida compared to the five other states.

States ranked by overall K-12 school quality:

FL: 16NJ: 1IL: 6MA: 2NY: 19CA: 40

Funding per student:

FL: 43NJ: 4IL: 8MA: 5NY: 1CA: 18

These two rankings are very interesting. FL ranked 16 in terms of quality but 43 in funding, which means that the state is getting a much better bang for its buck.

High school graduation:

FL 33NJ 29IL 30MA 32NY 43CA 50

Other than NY and CA which are the worst, the other four are bunched closely together.

Since mass school shootings continue to be front-page news I decided to take a look at that topic and FL and MA are head and shoulders above the other four. CA and IL are the most dangerous states relative to students and guns.

Student safety from guns:

FL 4NJ 17IL 50MA 8NY 21CA 48

Finally, since New College was cited by dozens of readers, I decided to take a look at the state university systems.

State university systems:

FL: 1NJ: 27IL: 32MA: 25NY: 14CA: 3

Florida is the clear winner and California is close. I was surprised at the middling rankings of New Jersey, Illinois and Massachusetts.

Homeowners insurance

Another big reader complaint was the cost and availability of homeowners insurance. Availability was hard to determine but costs were not. Florida and Illinois are far and away the most expensive, using the average price of homes in our area.

Cost of homeowners insurance for a $500,000 home:

FL: $3,530NJ: $2,276IL: $3,701MA: $2,315NY: $2,997CA: $2,138

Healthcare

In taking a look at healthcare, it was hard to find an overall comparison of quality. Instead, I took a look at the average per capita costs. It should be pointed out the small difference between Florida and Illinois means a bunching of states at that price range.

Per capita costs for healthcareFL: $9,501NJ: $11,266IL: $9,601MA: $12,754NY: $13,012CA: $9,665

Guns

The recently passed gun law was cited by a lot of readers as making them nervous, particularly combined with the perceived elevated level of hate and anger in the public realm. There were several categories of comparison, I picked two.

Registered gun rate per 100k / Gun death rate per 100kFL: 23.8 / 13.7NJ: 1.1 / 5IL: 11.4 / 14.1MA: 6.5 / 3.7NY: 4.6 / 5.3CA: 10.4 / 8.5

Clearly, there are a lot more guns per capita in Florida than the other five states. Illinois has the highest number of deaths per capita, but only slightly ahead of FL. Both states are much more deadly than the other four.

Life expectancy

The highest is Hawaii at 80.7 and the lowest is Mississippi at 71.9.

FL: 77.2NJ: 77.5IL: 76.8MA: 79NY: 77.7CA: 79

Another comparison where Florida and Illinois are the worst. Be mindful of the fact that the spread from the highest and lowest in the U.S. is only 9 years.

Happiness

Finally I was able to find a happiness index with two metrics. Hawaii has the highest score at 68.29 and West Virginia has the lowest at 33.42.

Happiness Score – Emotional and physical wellbeing:

FL: 51.01NJ: 58.10IL: 52.47MA: 56.85NY: 57.35CA: 63.14

Florida is a distant last in emotional and physical well-being. So, all the emails from readers expressing their unhappiness at the direction Florida is going might well be more representative than I had thought.

Florida did quite well in education and healthcare but did poorly in the area of guns – other than student gun violence – and happiness.

What are your thoughts?

This Wednesday, 4/19, check out my recent interview at https://suncoastpeople.com/david-houle.

Sarasota resident David Houle is a globally recognized futurist. He has given speeches on six continents, written 13 books and is futurist in residence at Ringling College of Art and Design. His websites are davidhoule.com and the2020sdecade.com. Email him at david@davidhoule.com.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Comparing Florida to five other states | The Futurist