Living in Cincinnati there is never a scarcity of people around who know how to play euchre. It lead me to the question, is Cincinnati the center of the euchre universe?
Over the past year, I've collected data on the Internet to test my hypothesis. Below is a visualization of my findings.
Source: Facebook Advertiser Data
On December 5, 2013, I used Facebook's advertiser interface to compile rough counts of Euchre players in each US state. States that are a dense red had the highest number of
people interested in Euchre.
Source: Google Alerts
In 2013, I created a record in a spreadsheet for every instance of a Google Alert finding a "Euchre Tournament." Above, you see a Red pin at the location of each of these records.
Source: iTunes Apps - Company Headquarters
I happen to know that some iPhone app development companies, such as A Star Software, are headquartered here in Cincinnati, OH. So I wanted
to chart where the 60+ Euchre apps were developed on the map. Unfortunately, most of the companies listed in iTunes do not have a link to
their company website. More difficult still was finding their location on the website. Therefore, I've charted those companies I could find with a yellow pin.
Conclusions
I wouldn't read too much into the locations of the iTunes App Company Headquarters. A few of them are in the Midwest but most skew toward technology hubs.
Instead, the other 2 data sources are extremely telling. Michigan has the most Facebook users and has had the most Euchre Tournaments show up on the Internet
over the past year. Therefore, our winner for the Center of the Euchre Universe is... DETROIT, MICHIGAN!