Who's smarter? Red States or Blue States?

I recently observed a twitter slap fight between two partisans over the question of whether red states are smarter than blue states.

This discussion rapidly broke down along the path "look it up yourself", "AHA! so I win!"

 I thought I might take a few minutes and resolve the question, at least for myself. Obviously, the quantification of "smarter" demands that methodology be explained.

The most recent SAT scores breakdown I could easily get my hands on is for 2011 results. I then googled, "Which states are red and which are blue" which led me to a map designating a hard value of each state (plus the District of Columbia) and a binary designation of red or blue based on which way the state voted in the most recent Presidential election.

Combining these two datasets, I got the following table: Mean 2011 SAT Scores by State States are listed by total 2011 SAT Scores

	Mean 2011 SAT Scores by State
	States are listed by total 2011 SAT Scores
	Rank	State	Critical Reading	Math	Writing	Combined	Participation Rate
blue	1	Illinois	599	617	591	1807	5%
blue	2	Minnesota	593	608	577	1778	7%
blue	3	Iowa	596	606	575	1777	3%
blue	4	Wisconsin	590	602	575	1767	5%
blue	6	Michigan	583	604	574	1761	5%
blue	13	Colorado	570	573	556	1699	19%
blue	21	New Mexico	548	541	529	1618	12%
blue	22	Ohio	539	545	522	1606	21%
blue	25	Washington	523	529	508	1560	57%
blue	26	New Hampshire	523	525	511	1559	77%
blue	27	Massachusetts	513	527	509	1549	89%
blue	28	Oregon	520	521	499	1540	56%
blue	30	Vermont	515	518	505	1538	67%
blue	31	Connecticut	509	513	513	1535	87%
blue	32	Virginia	512	509	495	1516	71%
blue	33	California	499	515	499	1513	53%
blue	36	New Jersey	495	516	497	1508	78%
blue	37	Maryland	499	502	491	1492	74%
blue	38	Rhode Island	495	493	489	1477	68%
blue	40	Pennsylvania	493	501	479	1473	73%
blue	42	New York	485	499	476	1460	89%
blue	44	Delaware	489	490	476	1455	74%
blue	45	Hawaii	479	500	469	1448	64%
blue	46	Florida	487	489	471	1447	64%
blue	50	Maine	469	469	453	1391	93%
blue	51	District of Columbia	469	457	459	1385	79%
red	5	Missouri	592	593	579	1764	5%
red	7	North Dakota	586	612	561	1759	3%
red	8	Kansas	590	595	567	1752	6%
red	9	Nebraska	585	591	569	1745	5%
red	10	South Dakota	584	591	562	1737	4%
red	11	Kentucky	576	572	563	1711	6%
red	12	Tennessee	575	568	567	1710	10%
red	14	Wyoming	572	569	551	1692	5%
red	15	Arkansas	568	570	554	1692	5%
red	16	Oklahoma	571	565	547	1683	6%
red	17	Utah	563	559	545	1667	6%
red	18	Mississippi	564	543	553	1660	4%
red	19	Louisiana	555	550	546	1651	8%
red	20	Alabama	546	541	536	1623	8%
red	23	Idaho	542	539	517	1598	20%
red	24	Montana	539	537	516	1592	26%
red	29	Arizona	517	523	499	1539	28%
red	34	Alaska	515	511	487	1513	52%
red	35	West Virginia	514	501	497	1512	17%
red	39	North Carolina	493	508	474	1475	67%
red	41	Indiana	493	501	476	1470	68%
red	43	Nevada	494	496	470	1460	47%
red	47	Texas	479	502	465	1446	58%
red	48	Georgia	485	487	473	1445	80%
red	49	South Carolina	482	490	464	1436	70%

And the winner is....

 

...Red by a significant amount. You may wish to doublecheck my findings as I do live in a Red state (but not one of the ones in the top 25).

 I am, however, a professional data scientist.

 Cheers,

 DT