Here we go, again, trying to answer an impossible question. Does average mean the most likely to be found, by what means of searching? Is this some image in our heads, depending on how old we are? I can see some corn-cob smoking, Abe Martin cartoon fellow in rustic dress, with a Ma Kettle from the movies (Majorie Main, born in Acton, IN). What do you see?

Is the average Hoosier male or female? Do we know what we mean any longer by male or female? According to the current administration in Washington, there are only two possible answers, but statistically there can be three. The average (modal) Hoosier is a female since 505 out of every 1,000 Hoosiers are identified as female by the folks filling our Census Bureau questionnaires. That leaves 495 males as the remainder of the population.

My preference is to give a consolidated response, using S/he. That's no problem for the average (mean) age of a Hoosier, since it is 34 for both men and women. However, the median age is 38 for the entire population; it would be 39 if we use only women’s ages and 37 if we used men’s.

Where does S/he live? The center of population for the state is located near Sheridan in Hamilton County, along W 700 N, east of the Boone County line. Our average Hoosier is a non-Hispanic, white home owner, married without children present. That does not mean S/he never had children; the youngsters may have flown the nest.

S/he graduated high school, but not gone further. Whether that marriage is with a same-sex or opposite-sex spouse, the labor force participation rate is over 82% and slightly above the national rate.

Perhaps the most perplexing issue with our average Hoosier is income. In the population-at-large, 25 and older, those with a high school degree (including equivalency certification) had a median income of $39,496. But Hoosier women in 2023 earned a median income of $31,298 (66%) compared to men who earned $47,090. This is a discrepancy of $15,792 (50%).

That little fact differs from the wildly circulated 83% women make as a percent of men’s earnings. Those data compare full-time, year-round workers. Women actually work fewer hours per year than men and have substantially lower earnings.

If Average She and Average He are sharing income, that’s $78,388 or $1,171 (1.5%) higher than their national counterparts. Yes, indeed, that edge of being Hoosiers must make our leaders proud. But it fades away as we adjust for race or ethnicity.

Media consultants and politicians fixate on the concept of a representative person. That person is just an idea, a convenient figure to avoid diverse reality. Certainly, we should not promote a complex, erroneous idea and transform it into an ideal.
Morton J. Marcus is an economist formerly with the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His column appears in Indiana newspapers, and his views can be followed his podcast.

© 2025 Morton J. Marcus

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