America's Most Average Person

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

The YouTube channel vlogbrothers recently posted a video (below, 4.5 minutes long) about “the most average person in America.” By that he meant he is looking at who is the median person in America. It is not really one person but he came up with some interesting traits (I will not list all of them…here are some main ones from the first minute or two of the video). I will say the one that surprised me was how little alcohol this person drank. Not a teetotaler, but very little.

  • 38.1 years old (born in 1986)
  • Female
  • White
  • Christian
  • Named Jessica (most popular female name in 1986)
  • Household size 2.51 people
  • Married (not divorced or widowed)
  • Household income $74,580/year
  • 15% of income to taxes, 15% to healthcare, 33% to housing
  • $4,700 in savings, $10,000 in retirement (think 401k)
  • Lives in a major metro area
  • Does not have a bachelor’s degree (something less than that)

There is more. I thought it was interesting.

2

2.51 people.

3

I can’t speak for the guy in the video.

Since he is not describing a literal single person but, rather, a composite person who is as average as possible I am not sure what should be done about 2.51 (which, I presume since she is married, means 0.51 children).

You could round up but that seems misleading. I do not know how that could be better handled given what he is trying to do which seems mostly for fun and not research level stuff.

4

Americans sneeze (on average) 4 times a day? I think I might have 2-3 days a year when I sneeze maybe 10 times. Some people must sneeze a lot.

5

“Poor Horatio”

6

Well that’s just not normal.

Sneezing not being normal is a long-running nerdfighter in-joke.

I remember hearing somewhere (possibly on an early Numberphile podcast) that even when you round the impossible fractions to whole numbers, when you examine that many different variables from real world data, a person who is truly average in every last one of the measured dimensions is statistically extremely unlikely to exist. So this Jessica that John Green speaks of is truly mythical.

7

Mean vs median is a consideration here. Which average best characterizes the data?

8

I think you want median. Mean gets skewed badly by fringe cases.

10, 10, 10, 100 has a mean of 32.5 but a median of 10.

9

vs mode (most common), which is what some of those are (e.g. “named Jessica”).

10

It seems like the vid creator was fairly smart about choosing mean, median, or mode for each parameter as appropriate to the underlying data, and calling the resulting mélange “average”. e.g. Mode for name, mean for family size, and median for income.

Sure there are edge cases where it’s arguable which makes the most sense, but for any of us who understand the difference between the three measures, one is usually a clear stand-out as the best measure.

11

I asked AI to generate an image of the Average American, to see how close it came to reality. Not bad.

12

That’s actually kinda cool. Not sure if that should worry me.

13

Only if you’re a senior citizen.

14

I think a senior citizen is someone 55 or older. I am 56 so…

15

I’m reminded of advice from an earlier more ribald version of the Dope to not do something with the crazy. This more-senior citizen might be inclined to disregard that advice. Once. For 20 minutes. :grin:

16

I thought the median was the grass strip down the middle of the road.

.
drives away

17

Braggart.
My emphasis.

18

But when they do drink, what is their drink of choice, I wonder? Can’t be Dos Equis— that would be far too interesting of a choice.

19

But her friends call her “Joe.”

20

I know A LOT of Jessicas, being one of those born at the peak of its popularity as a name. But we all have college degrees! :muscle: