Photo by Getty Images.
Welcome to The Topline, a weekly roundup of the big numbers driving the Minnesota news cycle, as well as the smaller ones that you might have missed. This week: Minnesota imprisonment rates; pedestrian deaths continue to fall; Biden’s age in context; and religious diversity (or rather lack thereof) in Minnesota.
Minnesota jails people at a higher rate than Russia
Minnesota’s imprisonment rate is considerably higher than the authoritarian country of Russia, according to a new report from the Prison Policy Initiative that attempts to put domestic incarceration rates in a global context.
Minnesota’s incarceration rate of 323 people per 100,000 is considerably higher than Russia’s rate of 300 per 100,000. But our rate is nonetheless lower than the rate in all but seven other states – an illustration of just how carceral the United States is relative to the rest of the world.
Louisiana and Mississippi have incarceration rates of over 1,000. Among the world’s countries, only El Salvador is more likely to throw its citizens behind bars.
The state figures account for people in local jails and state and federal prisons. The international numbers come from the World Prison Brief, an academic initiative that seeks to provide the best available estimates of prison populations, even in authoritarian nations, like Russia and China, where reliable data is hard to come by.
Minnesota’s incarceration rate is lower than most other states because courts here are more likely to sentence offenders to probation.
Minnesota one of the safest states for pedestrians
Minnesota’s pedestrian fatality rate is tied with Vermont’s for the second-lowest in the nation, according to the latest estimates from the Governors Highway Safety Administration. Only Nebraska has a lower rate.
Our fatality rate of 0.77 deaths per 100,000 residents is less than one-sixth of the state with the nation’s highest rate, New Mexico.
Nationally, pedestrian fatalities declined in 2023 for the first time since the pandemic. In recent years, drivers of pickup trucks have become considerably more likely to kill pedestrians than those behind the wheel of a passenger car. Drivers are also four times more likely to strike and kill pedestrians at night.
Minnesota also received kudos this week for having some of the nation’s best biking infrastructure in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Joe Biden is quite old
Last week’s shambolic presidential debate underscored many voters’ concerns with President Joe Biden’s age and mental fitness. A few factoids to consider: In 1942, when Biden was born, the average male life expectancy was about 63 years, according to the Social Security Administration. He’s now almost two decades past that number.
Another way to think of these numbers: in 2021, when Joe Biden was 78, men of that age had a 5% chance of dying within one year and could expect to live an additional nine years overall (more recent figures aren’t yet available).
Joe Biden is older than Velcro, microwave ovens and the bikini.
Let’s not forget, however: Former President Donald Trump is just three years younger, which means most of this applies to him, as well. Plus he tried to overthrow an election and has been convicted of 34 felonies (so far).
Many experts, like Harvard political scientist Pippa Norris, worry that Biden is following a trajectory similar to that of other powerful Democrats like the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sen. Dianne Feinstein: clinging to power well within their twilight years when they could be making space for the next generation of leaders.
One more astonishing fact to consider: The man who was in the White House three decades ago, Bill Clinton, is four years younger than Biden is today.
Minnesota is not especially diverse from the standpoint of religion but you probably knew that already
The Washington Post recently published a fun series of maps on religious diversity in America, which underscore the lack thereof in Minnesota. Yes, we are squarely in the bullseye of “Lutheran Country,” with a little bit of Catholicism thrown in for good measure.
But we’re not the most religiously homogeneous state in the union. That honor goes to Utah, where roughly half of the population identifies as Mormon.
The post The Topline: Pedestrian deaths decline appeared first on Minnesota Reformer.