As we head into another election season, with candidate interviews, debates and the never-ending slew of candidate commercials inundating our airwaves, we the voters will be trying to get all the information possible and, in a perfect world, all of the true information. Facts have never been more important and, at the same time, harder to come by. There are a lot of reasons for that; primary among them, though, is people believing anything presented as fact because it fits their preconception of what they believe, rather than checking to see if the underlying data actually support the talking point. For instance, anyone who says unemployment is high right now or that the stock market shows signs of a failing economy are factually incorrect — unemployment has never been lower and the stock market is at historic highs. To that same end, anyone who says inflation isn’t a big factor to businesses is sharing a mistruth, as a survey we just completed in Yarmouth identified inflation as one of the two largest issues facing businesses, along with recruiting workforce.

Part of knowing what is true and what isn’t true is having good sources of information, and fortunately for Mainers, one of the premier publications just came out. MaineBiz does an annual end-of summer edition called the Fact Book, which shares dozens of graphs and charts with clearly cited sources so you can fact-check the underlying data. It’s a piece I rely on annually and something you should look at, too.

Below are some interesting takeaways that I think are important. We are a citizen-government, and with every seat open in our Maine House and Senate, there will be many chances for you to question candidates this fall on what’s important to you. It’s essential then that we all have the same baseline of information to work from, and this MaineBiz edition gives us that and so much more. Here are some takeaways and other pieces I found interesting from this year’s edition.

Maine ranks ninth in quality health care

WalletHub does an annual survey of all states based on health care costs, access and outcomes of over 44 relevant health care metrics, and Maine finished ninth just behind Vermont and ahead of Colorado. Health care is a critical concern for anyone looking to invest in or move to Maine, so this ranking has huge potential positive impacts.

Vacationland ranks ninth for summer road trip destinations

WalletHub also does a ranking about summer road trip destinations, and though Maine is the only state bordered by only one other state (making it less accessible than centrally located states), it was ranked ninth in road trip destinations just behind Wyoming and ahead of Pennsylvania. Maine was far and away the leader in New England, as the next closest in the ranking was New Hampshire at 35th and Massachusetts at 37th, while the other three states were in the bottom five of the list.

Maine grows but still older

According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau Data (2022 American Community Survey), 56% of Mainers are 40 years old and older; however, we did see growth from 2021–2023 in 15 of 16 counties in Maine, according to another study by the U.S. Census Bureau. Cumberland and York counties still account for the largest percentage of Maine population (approximately 520,000 of our nearly 1.4 million residents, or over 1 in 3 Mainers). The highest growth was in Oxford County at over 2%.

More degrees and diplomas than the U.S. averages

Education is always a hot topic during elections, and according to the U.S. Census Bureau 2022 American Community Survey, Maine has higher rates of associate degrees, bachelor’s degrees and high school diplomas for residents age 25 and over than the U.S. average and nearly the exact same percentage of graduate degrees (just 0.2% less than the U.S. average). Education is important to Mainers, as seen by our percentage of Mainers without a high school diploma being nearly half of the U.S. average (U.S. average 10.4%, Maine 5.4%).

Maine Maritime Museum a top tourist attraction

According to self-reported numbers from the destinations, Maine Maritime Museum in Bath was 14th in 2023 attendance on a list that is led by much larger destinations such as Acadia National Park and Sugarloaf. Over 56,000 tourists came to the museum in 2023.

Where did the out-of-staters come from?

Though the most recent data that was published came from Maine Real Estate Information Systems, Inc. data for 2020 listings, there is a fascinating map of where home buyers came from when relocating to Maine. Though one may expect the New England states would be where most relocators came from, the rest of the list may surprise you. The top 10 are as follows: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Florida, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. Colorado was 11th, which was a surprising outlier as that was more than the seven states that border Colorado combined, and Colorado doesn’t have the population of a California, Florida or Texas.

Brunswick leads for industrial and business parks

Brunswick Landing is the second-largest business or industrial park in Maine by number of acres but far exceeds any other business park in terms of tenants. In the self-reported survey, it had nearly 100 more tenants than the next-biggest parks in Saco and Sanford, respectively (160 to 67). Brunswick also has another top-10 park in terms of tenants with the Brunswick Industrial Park having 25 tenants.

The MaineBiz Fact Book also has numbers on workforce such as employment growth by industry, women in Maine’s workforce by industry and percentage working population working multiple jobs (Maine 30% higher than U.S. average). Also, it includes business resources like most active Small Business Association lenders and a business resource guide of organizations to help businesses. I strongly encourage you to pick up a copy of the Fact Book to flip through, and congrats to MaineBiz on again such a quality piece.

Cory King is executive director of the Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber of Commerce.