States from the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains regions make up most of the top ten on Gallup’s payroll to population (P2P) list for 2014, with North Dakota ranking No. 1.
The P2P metrics are based on Gallup polls from more than 350,000 American adults, ages 18 and up. Only employees who work at least 30 hours are included in P2P rates, and self-employed individuals are not counted.
In 2014, North Dakota had a final P2P rate of 54%. Nebraska ranked No. 2 with a P2P rate of 50.5% and Minnesota ranked No. 3 with a P2P rate of 49.2%.
The rest of the top ten for 2014 were Kansas (49.1%); Maryland (49%); Wyoming (48.6%); Utah (48.5%); Colorado (48.4%); Alaska (48.3%) and Iowa (48.3%).
The five states with the lowest Gallup unemployment rates for 2014 (Wyoming, North Dakota, Nebraska, Utah and Kansas) also made the top ten for P2P rate.
Some of the states with the highest unemployment rates of 2014 were also among the bottom ten P2P states, including Nevada, Florida, West Virginia and Arizona.
For the second year in a row, West Virginia had the lowest P2P rate of 2014 with 35.6%, followed by Florida (38.9%) and Mississippi (39%).
The test of the bottom ten P2P states were New Mexico (39.1%); Oregon (39.1%); Alabama (40%); Arizona (40%); South Carolina (40.2%); Kentucky (40.3%) and Nevada (40.7%).
States with a lot of older residents who have retired from the workforce can have lower P2P scores as a result. Two of the bottom ten P2P states, Florida and West Virginia, also have some of the highest populations 65 years old and older.
