Panhandle Geography

The Daily Yonder's data newsletter examined America's panhandles — geographic salients like those in Texas, Oklahoma, Alaska, and seven other states — to see whether their reputation for rurality holds up statistically. Using both Census block-level and county-level definitions, the analysis found panhandle residents are indeed more likely to live outside urban areas or in nonmetropolitan counties than the country overall.

The Oklahoma Panhandle, born from a 34-mile strip Texas ceded to preserve slavery, turned out to be entirely nonmetropolitan and about 56% rural by Census measure. Alaska and Idaho complicated the pattern, since their most remote territory sits outside the panhandle proper, skewing comparisons.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.