Data Movers

What this page tracks

This page pulls the fast-moving figures out of the state data and shows the two ends of each list, so you can see which states are pulling away from the rest without reading 50 profiles. Gas is the state average for regular unleaded from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly survey, shown with its gap to the national average; the file was last updated May 1, 2026. Job growth is the year-over-year change in employment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages for 2024, unemployment is the 2024 annual average, and the tech list ranks states by technology jobs per capita with the largest sector named beside each. Cannabis status follows state law as of May 2026 and separates states with legal adult use from states where possession remains a crime.

In the current data, regular gas runs from $2.90 in Oklahoma to $4.72 in California, a spread of $1.82 a gallon; job growth runs from 2.8% in Arizona to 0.4% in West Virginia; 25 states allow adult-use cannabis and 4 prohibit it. Every state name links to its profile, where the same figures sit next to taxes, housing and crime, and the comparison pages put two states side by side.