Spreadsheets and statistics are fine if you understand they are a way to refine a wild
assed guess based on a limited pool of facts. Ultimately you have to simply get out
there and see for yourself what the area is like.
I got to cheat somewhat, growing up in Iowa you tend to meet a whole lot of people
from "flyover america". Truckers tend to cover a lot of ground as well as sales reps,
technicians, military people, etc. Unfortunately they also tend to hyperfocus on a
limited set of things.
East and West coast people often ended up in middle america for countless reasons,
and then the ones growing up there tend to run off the the big cities in the east
and west.
Oddly enough, the big city people don't seem to leave their own regions very much
compared to those who grew up in the middle of nowhere. Which tend to be comparing
a small fraction of a population to another small fraction.
Had a teacher in one school who told the class that most people in the US, something like 80% will
grow up, live and die less than 300 miles from where they were born. The kids tried to be polite and
not laugh too much because 300 miles is nothing out in the plains states. You usually had to drive
5-6 hours to get anywhere interesting. And if you joined the military, chances are you would blow
right past that limit just to get to basic training.
But, some twenty years down the line and it was true enough. For Iowa the percentage was more
like 60, but still there were a whole lot of "townies" still pretty much in the same region. The ones who
left for work, college, whatever tended to socialize with the other people who left town. And even
outside of Iowa I tended to run into more travelers than townies socially.
Its kind of odd how that works, travel across the country and end up hanging around with people who
aren't even from the new place.
So who knows, you can choose the scenery, and a better off region for what you want, but
I'm not really sure once you run off if you ever can really settle down and become a townie again.
