How New Hampshire counties compare with the rest of the US

On four measures, every one of New Hampshire's 10 counties does better than the median US county: income per person, health insurance for residents under 65, home broadband, and the share of women in the labor force. The figures come from the American Community Survey, the Census Bureau's annual household survey. Running the same comparison for every state, Cambium AI found only two others where every county is ahead on all four: Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Connecticut's figures are published for nine planning regions rather than counties, and all nine are ahead too.

These are not the only measures, and New Hampshire does not lead on all of them. Housing costs run the other way, as set out below. The figures are five-year averages from the survey's 2019 to 2023 release, with incomes in 2023 dollars. Here is how the state's counties line up against the median of the 3,144 counties in the 50 states and DC.

Four measures, ten counties

1. Income per person: from $36,850 in Coos County to $59,710 in Rockingham County, against $33,946 in the median US county. Rockingham ranks 55th of 3,144 counties.
2. Residents under 65 without health insurance: from 5.4% in Rockingham County to 9.5% in Carroll County, against 9.9% in the median US county. Lower is better here.
3. Households with a broadband subscription: from 86.1% in Sullivan County to 94.4% in Rockingham County, against 85.3%. Rockingham ranks 63rd.
4. Women aged 16 and over in the civilian labor force: from 55.3% in Carroll County to 66.1% in Hillsborough County, against 54.6%.

Rockingham County leads on three of the four.

Women in the labor force

In the median US county, 54.6% of women aged 16 and over are in the labor force. That counts women with a job and women without one who say they looked for work in the previous four weeks and could have started. The survey asks about both, but the county figures used here do not split them, so this is a measure of taking part in the job market, not of having a job. In Hillsborough County, the state's largest, the figure is 66.1%, which ranks 82nd of 3,144 counties. The full list:

1. Hillsborough County: 66.1%
2. Strafford County: 63.4%
3. Rockingham County: 63.1%
4. Merrimack County: 60.3%
5. Belknap County: 59.8%
6. Cheshire County: 59.3%
7. Grafton County: 58.3%
8. Sullivan County: 56.3%
9. Coos County: 55.3%
10. Carroll County: 55.3%

This measure counts every woman aged 16 and over, including those past retirement age.

Where the margins are narrow

A few of these leads are slim. In Carroll County, 55.3% of women are in the labor force, against 54.6% in the median US county, and 9.5% of residents under 65 have no health insurance, against 9.9%. In Sullivan County, 86.1% of households have broadband, against 85.3%. The survey asks a sample of households, not everyone, so every county figure is an estimate, and differences this small could go either way.

The run also stops at four. On a fifth measure, the share of residents aged 25 and over with a bachelor's degree, nine counties are above the median US county, led by Grafton County at 44.8%. Coos County, at 20.2%, is below the median of 21.4%.

Where New Hampshire trails

Housing costs are one exception. In every New Hampshire county, a larger share of households spends 30% or more of income on housing than in the median US county. The share runs from 27.8% in Coos County to 32.8% in Strafford County, against 23.1%. This figure covers owners and renters together.

What this changes for a plan

A state where every county beats the median US county is easy to treat as one place. New Hampshire's counties are not alike: income per person in Rockingham County is about 1.6 times the figure in Coos County, and the share of women in the labor force runs from 55.3% to 66.1%. A program or campaign planned on the state picture alone would miss that. Looking county by county is the point of place-based analysis.

Cambium AI builds synthetic populations from this same public data, so a research or marketing team can look at who makes up an audience before a budget is set. The methodology sets out how those populations are built from public data.

Data source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates