Mr. Average

I knew it. I always did. Over the years I've been middle-income, middle-management, middle-western...even, once upon a time, middle-aged, and middle-just about everything else, and now it turns out the state I've lived in more than any other is, well, the most average state in the US.

Illinois is the fifth - largest state, home to the big city Chicago, rolling countryside in the south, and a lot of sprawling suburbs. And it has Peoria, which, it turns out, really is a barometer of America's preferences. Many companies continue to use the city in central Illinois as a test market, taking literally the adage about how things play there.

And there ya go. I've also lived in the third most average state, Michigan. Of the nine states I've lived in for any length of time the two most far-out have been North Carolina and Massachusetts and neither of those is more than about half as un-average as West Virginia, Mississippi, or Vermont. Go figure, huh?

So it's official, then. Mr. Average is me.

Link: Census shows early primary states are far from 'average' - The Boston Globe