For those of you that love numbers and function as human calculators, you might be interested in taking a look at the best states for mathematicians.
I’m not a math person. I much prefer words to numbers and I hated calculus in high school. Yes, I took the AP test and I passed, but I don’t remember anything and I didn’t really bother to learn the unit circle. I was a good student, but not motivated in the math department. However, I am proud of anyone who loves this subject since it’s not something I find even remotely interesting unless I can apply it to a simple shopping situation, cooking food, or tipping food delivery. Except Seamless actually calculates this for me, so I seldom even have to use my brain for that. I digress. I only want easy math that I can actually use instead of long equations.
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Mathematicians do more than just sit around and solve equations. Many are professors who teach math principles and then conduct their own research when they’re not in class. They also work in other fields like astronomy, medicine, or robotics. It’s a fairly vast field and it just depends on your specialty and interests. Some of the best states are going to be the ones that have job opportunities across the board. I wonder if any of the Most Famous Female Mathematicians in the 21st-Century hail from these places.
In order to find out the best states here, we used three values to determine how each state would fare for living and working there. We considered cost of living, which we sourced from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC); employment rates, sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS); and the annual median salary, also sourced from BLS. It’s only natural to look at the salary when hunting for a job, but one must note that the cost of living impacts how the salary works out. That’s why we have to look at both salary and cost of living together.
Ultimately, what we’re looking for on this list are the states that have a good balance among those three factors, which would be a place with low cost of living, good salary, and high employment rates. Sharpen your pencils and get your calculators ready for the best states for mathematicians!
11. Massachusetts
Annual median salary: $111,030
Cost of living: 134.7
Employment: 90
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10. District of Columbia
Annual median salary: $118,130
Cost of living: 149.2
Employment: 90
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9. California
Annual median salary: $118,040
Cost of living: 134.8
Employment: 740
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8. Maryland
Annual median salary: $132,140
Cost of living: 125
Employment: 330
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7. New Jersey
Annual median salary: $145,360
Cost of living: 121
Employment: 150
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6. Florida
Annual median salary: $94,050
Cost of living: 99
Employment: 110
We’re halfway through our list of best states for mathematicians and now, let’s see the other half.
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5. Ohio
Annual median salary: $93,650
Cost of living: 93
Employment: 40
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4. New Mexico
Annual median salary: $108,510
Cost of living: 95.7
Employment: 50
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3. Virginia
Annual median salary: $112,610
Cost of living: 100.2
Employment: 420
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2. Texas
Annual median salary: $53,900
Cost of living: 90.7
Employment: 130
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1. Michigan
Annual median salary: $84,900
Cost of living: 88.2
Employment: 60
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No matter your job, you should be mindful of where you’re searching if you’re looking to move to a new state. You can follow our pattern and search using the same methodology if you want to apply these ideas to other fields. Remember that salary isn’t the most important thing, as you must cross-reference it with other factors. However, if you’re a mathematician looking for a new place to live, we did the work for you in looking for the best states for mathematicians.
