Congressional Districts Visited by IVLP Participants in 2015

Congressional Districts Visited by IVLP Participants in 2015

 

Each year, in order to track the geographic diversity of our programming, we collect a list of the cities that our visitors see as they travel across the country. Last marked the 75th Anniversary of the International Visitor Leadership Program. Using the list of cities from that year we constructed a map to visually show our visitors travels. Would the data points cluster near the coast or major cities? What if we overlaid it with congressional districts? How would the spread be with red and blue districts? In the following maps we tried to discover the answers to those questions and more and the results might be surprising.

The Global Ties network of community based members (CBM) coordinates programming for international visitors across the country. Some states have several CBMS while others have none like Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Kansas and West Virginia. The location of CBMs is marked with gold stars on the map. If a state lacks a CBM, coordinating local meetings becomes much harder.

 

The Results

Congressional Districts Visited by IVLP Participants in 2015
Congressional Districts Visited by IVLP Participants in 2015

 

Based on our data we discovered that of 435 total districts 213 districts or 49% were visited.  Of those districts visited 119 were Democrat districts (56%) and 93 were Republican districts (44%). Of 190 total Democrat districts 63% were visited. Of 247 total Republican districts 38% were visited.

 

In reviewing the map it is evident, as expected that visitor travel clusters around CBMs. Perhaps the most surprising finding is visitor travel in Alabama which covered all of Alabama’s 7 congressional districts. In addition to Alabama, every congressional district was visited in eleven other states. Two states weren’t visited at all. The following chart has a quick summary.

 

  State % Visited Total Congressional Districts
1 Alabama 100% 7
2 Delaware 100% 1
3 Idaho 100% 2
4 Montana 100% 1
5 Nebraska 100% 3
6 New Hampshire 100% 2
7 North Dakota 100% 1
8 Oregon 100% 5
9 Rhode Island 100% 2
10 South Dakota 100% 1
11 Vermont 100% 1
12 Wyoming 100% 1
13 Oklahoma 80% 5
14 Iowa 75% 4
15 Nevada 75% 4
16 Kentucky 67% 6
17 New Mexico 67% 3
18 West Virginia 67% 3
19 New York 63% 27
20 Washington 60% 10
21 Arizona 56% 9
22 Massachusetts 56% 9
23 Ohio 56% 16
24 Virginia 55% 11
25 Texas 53% 36
26 Hawaii 50% 2
27 Kansas 50% 4
28 Louisiana 50% 6
29 Maine 50% 2
30 Maryland 50% 8
31 Minnesota 50% 8
32 Mississippi 50% 4
33 Missouri 50% 8
34 Utah 50% 4
35 California 49% 53
36 Florida 44% 27
37 Colorado 43% 7
38 South Carolina 43% 7
39 Georgia 36% 14
40 Michigan 36% 14
41 New Jersey 33% 12
42 North Carolina 31% 13
43 Illinois 28% 18
44 Pennsylvania 28% 18
45 Arkansas 25% 4
46 Wisconsin 25% 8
47 Connecticut 20% 5
48 Indiana 11% 9
49 Alaska 0% 1
50 Tennessee 0% 9

 

States vary in the number of red and blue districts. Are visitors only experiencing red or blue districts when they travel to a state? The following scatterplot helps to answer this question.

Percentage of State Congressional Districts Visited by Party
Percentage of State Congressional Districts Visited by Party

This blog is part of a series. The previous posts discuss the relationship between the IVLP and the rise in women leaders, another offers a profile of IVLP alumni that become heads of state and one more is a time-lapse video showing the origin of IVLP participants since 1950.