USA Today is out with maps that show which way the majority in each county voted in the recent presidential election and how large the margin was.
A report from the Brookings Institution adds some numbers and economic context to the results. The Brookings report shows that President Donald Trump won 2,497 counties and President-elect Joe Biden won 477 counties.
Many of the blue counties in the Brookings graphic appear larger than the red counties. That’s because many of those 477 blue counties are highly populated and highly productive.
Brookings calculated that the counties where the majority voted for Biden account for 70% of the nation’s economy. The analysis concluded that even though there are five times as many counties where the majority voted for Trump, all of those counties combined represent 29% of the national economy.
They also noted that Biden flipped half of the 10 most economically significant counties Trump won in 2016, including Tarrant County in North Texas.
Retirement savings (and withdrawals) during the pandemic
Some retirement savings news: Vanguard says even though restrictions have been loosened on taking out money from our 401(k) plans during the pandemic, only 4.5% of Vanguard participants withdrew money from their retirement plans because of COVID-19.
The average withdrawal amount: $12,000.
A bright spot in the report: 12% of people who have accounts with Vanguard increased retirement contributions as the pandemic raged and the economy soured. Twenty-three percent of participants put away more money into their retirement fund because they had previously set their contributions to automatically increase.