Frightening Change in Demographics

New Haven, CT (L), Ogden, UT (R)

If you have ever spent any time in New Haven or Hartford, CT, or many areas of Springfield, MA, you likely were concerned about safety. These are certainly not areas known for civility. And if these areas are the metros most representative of America today, as Five Thirty Eight tells readers, you have no better reason to understand the momentum behind Donald Trump. Americans are scared and fed up with the elite politicians on both sides of the aisle. Americans want something done about the immigration laws that have swamped America with illegals and gang members like MS-13, never mind the horde of Muslim immigrants, especially potentially troublesome single young males. Donald Trump appears to have grasped America’s concern for safety and a return to an America First point of view.

Looking across metros of all sizes, the places that look most like America tend to be larger metros, though not the largest ones. The similarity index is highest, on average, for metros with between 1 million and 2 million people. The metros that look least like America are those with fewer than 100,000 people.

But the places that look today most like 1950s America are not large metros but rather smaller metros and rural areas. Looking across all of America, including the rural areas, the regions that today look most demographically similar to 1950 America are the portion of eastern Ohio around the towns of Cambridge and Coshocton and the Cumberland Valley district in southeastern Kentucky.