Minnesota, Western States Lead Nation in Male Population; Vote for GOP Governors

In one of the quirkier statistical findings reported by this blog, a new Smart Politics analysis of Census Bureau data finds that all twelve states in the country in which the male population is equal to or greater than that of the female population are located west of the Mississippi River – including the states of Minnesota and South Dakota.

And in what may not be a coincidence, with males tending to be more Republican than females nationwide, voters in 75 percent (9) of these 12 states currently have Republican governors in office – compared to just 34 percent (13) of the remaining 38 states in the country.

Overall, women comprise approximately 51 percent of the population of the United States, including the majority population of 38 states.

Of the 24 states west of the Mississippi River, however, males comprise at least 50 percent of the population in 12 of them (including 51 percent in Nevada). The Upper Midwestern states of Minnesota and South Dakota are among these 12 states, as well as Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming.

While women nationwide have consistently identified themselves more as Democrats than Republicans for decades, men have identified in greater numbers as Republicans than Democrats since the Reagan revolution in the early 1980s (though neither party has achieved a majority following among either gender, with approximately one-fifth to one-third of both males and females identifying as independents over the years).

Among the 12 states with the highest percentage male population, Republicans currently sit in the governor’s mansion in 9 of them (75 percent) – Minnesota, South Dakota, Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, and Utah. Democrats control the governorships of two-thirds of the remaining 38 states.

Gender Population by State

Sources: Bureau of the Census Current Population Surveys (2007, 2008) and Kaiser Family Foundation State Health Facts.org. * Republican Arizona Governor Jan Brewer was not elected to office, having succeeded Janet Napolitano when she became Secretary of Homeland Security earlier in 2009.

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