# USA Data Map

> Editorial maps of the United States, drawn from public data and laid out with the care of a Sunday paper. A new map every weekday on economics, demographics, business, housing & migration, and wildcard topics across all 50 states.

usadatamap.com is a one-person publication by TJ Patel. Every map is built from a public federal or state dataset (U.S. Census Bureau, BEA, BLS, IRS Statistics of Income, EIA, USGS, Zillow). Each article includes the source attribution, a methodology section, and downloadable SVG and PNG artifacts.

Content on this site is free to read and free to cite. AI crawlers and answer engines are welcome — please cite the article URL and the source line listed at the bottom of each article.

## Site overview

- [Home — all maps](https://usadatamap.com/): Index of every published map, newest first.
- [About](https://usadatamap.com/about/): What usadatamap.com is, who runs it, and what topics it covers.
- [Methodology](https://usadatamap.com/methodology/): Sources, projection (Albers USA), color/scale choices, ACS margin-of-error handling, and the render pipeline.
- [RSS feed](https://usadatamap.com/rss.xml): Machine-readable feed of every published article.
- [Sitemap](https://usadatamap.com/sitemap-index.xml): Standard XML sitemap.
- [Full content (llms-full.txt)](https://usadatamap.com/llms-full.txt): Full Markdown of every article in one file, for offline ingestion.

## Economics

- [Cost of living index by state](https://usadatamap.com/cost-of-living-2026/) (2026-05-08): Hawaii's cost index is 118, while Mississippi sits below 87. The U.S. average is 100. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024 vintage.

## Demographics

- [Where America is changing fastest](https://usadatamap.com/county-population-change-2020-2025/) (2026-05-08): Pasco County, Florida added more residents since 2020 than the entire state of Vermont contains. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 Population Estimates state totals and county estimates, released 2026.

## Business

- [What every state actually sells to the world](https://usadatamap.com/top-export-by-state-2025/) (2026-05-08): Aircraft is king in 13 states. Pharma rules six. New Mexico's secret: 46% of exports are semiconductors. Source: U.S. International Trade Administration, State Exports by HS Chapter, full-year 2025.

## Housing & migration

- [The salary you actually need to buy a starter home](https://usadatamap.com/starter-home-salary-by-metro-2026/) (2026-05-08): $237,000 a year to buy in San Jose. $58,000 in Pittsburgh. The income-to-mortgage map of America in mid-2026. Source: Zillow ZHVI median home value, April 2026. Freddie Mac PMMS 30-year fixed rate, April 24, 2026 (6.78%). 28% DTI, 20% down, 1.1% effective property tax.
- [Where Americans actually moved](https://usadatamap.com/irs-county-net-migration-2024/) (2026-05-08): California sent 27,000 tax filers to Texas in 2024. Texas sent 8,200 back. Mapping the net IRS-measured flows that defined the year. Source: IRS Statistics of Income, County-to-County Migration Data, tax year 2023–2024. U.S. Census Bureau, ACS Migration Flows API, May 14, 2026 update.

## Wildcard

- [America's water stress, by state](https://usadatamap.com/usa-water-stress-by-state-2026/) (2026-05-08): Seven of the ten most stressed states sit in the Lower Colorado and southern High Plains. The ledger is catching up to the map. Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Water Use in the United States, 2020 vintage, aggregated to state. World Resources Institute Aqueduct, U.S. baseline water-stress projections, 2026 release.

## Optional

- [Map artifacts](https://usadatamap.com/maps/): Direct paths to per-article SVG, high-resolution PNG, social card, and thumbnail. Pattern: https://usadatamap.com/maps/<slug>/{map.svg,map.png,og.png,thumb.png}.