win a $25 Kiva gift voucher !!

[Guest]

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[AccountAbility]

Boy!  Take a trip for a week away from the internet and miss a whole contest. 

I'd guess the largest group by far come from "anonymous" or "blank", but I don't know the per capita earnings there.

As an interesting statistic, how many of the 128 thousand lenders were identified by a state?  Maybe Alaskans are prouder of where they are from. 

Dan

[Peter S]

Margaret: good pick!   I see Steff has joined you on that one.   I would have joined you as well, as Irina isn't fully funded at the time of writing this, but I have already made one loan today, and to keep my KivAddiction under control I am making myself stick to one a day.

Dan: the anonymouses (anonymice?) may not reveal their names, but don't seem so reticent about revealing their location.  I found 49,000 Americans identified by state, which when you factor in the Kivans from outside the US, is probably a respectable majority of the actual number within the nearer 120,000 total when I was doing the Googling.

Queen: good point about cost-of-living.   It may not be a complete coincidence that of the 50 states, Alaska has the lowest individual tax burden.   The other four states without a state sales tax are also up there near the top of the list. But, as Mark Twain wrote: Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."

[Teresa Kramer]

Someone I know who has been responsible for collecting for the CFC (Combined Federal Campaign at workplaces) for various charities in the US told me: "the amount someone gives to the CFC seems to be in inverse proportion to his/her salary". In other words, those who have less give the most. Our daughter in Peace Corps has certainly found that to be true where she lives--they have virtually nothing (by our standards) and they give whatever they can whenever they can. Teresa (Northern VA)

[akevin]

Interesting results, Peter. Did you get the data by google searching each of the states within kiva loaner pages?

I was also surprised to see Alaska at the top of the list. Internet use by state may in fact be a factor - Alaska is actually one of the most connected states - the south less so:



I imagine media patterns in each of the states matters too, as Kiva is still getting known. I guess Alaska could also have a greater focus on nation-wide news than the more local distractions that come with higher population density.

In terms of international participation, do you think the loans being in US dollars has much affect?

-Kevin


By the way, small objection to the classification of New Mexico as a red state (as those of us from there tend to carry a ridiculous level of state pride) It is purple, the swingiest of states - Gore won it in 2000 by 366 or so votes. It is amidst a vastness of red (much of US south and west) - an oasis of sorts. 

[Peter S]

Hi Kevin

yes, basically Google site:http://www.kiva.org/lender/   That also gets results from lenders' loans and "I loan because"s and "about"s, so it wasn't straightforward for states with 2-letter abbreviations that also get picked up other than for the location, like IN, ME, OR, AL, LA and OK - had to do some sampling and extrapolation there.  Kiva doesn't insist on stringent or standardized address details - it's pretty freeform.

Internet use - I hadn't thought of that.  The varying take-up of the Internet might though be a function of relative wealth.  I got some way with expressing the results in terms of each state's per capita income.  That pushes Oregon to the top of the list (100 Kivans per $10 billion of state's total income) and leaves Mississippi (with the lowest per capita income in the US) still rooted to the bottom with 12 per $10 billion.  That way of ranking makes the apparent north & west bias even more pronounced - the top 10 = OR, AK, WA, MT, MA, NM, CO, CA, UT, VT.   Those 10 include the 4 states with the highest percentages of self-reported non-religious Americans.   Or is it just something in the mountain and Pacific air?  I approach this with a sense of caution - as I said before, quoting Mark Twain quoting Disraeli, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

I don't think the loans being in US dollars has much affect on international lenders.  With the dollar being so weak at present, international lenders like me are paying less.  £12.50 of my GBP buys $25 - not so very long ago that would have cost me around £18.00, nearly 50% more.   If the dollar strengthens, you might see us retreating a little.

-Peter

[Soriak]

I wanted to buy some chewing gum today, but figured I could instead fund a Kiva loan. Good thing the US dollar is so weak 

Ok, it's not that bad just yet