Almost everyone buys gasoline…period. Even if you don’t own a car, you’re paying for fuel one way or another. Recently, the folks over at howmuch.net put together an interesting map showing the current average price of gas (as of January) and the corresponding amount of gas tax by state. While this might seem academic, it reveals how a necessary commodity like gasoline can affect the cost of living in each state.
We gathered the data from a couple different places—we found average gas prices from AAA.com and tax information from API.org. We combined both datasets to color-code each circle on the map, representing how expensive a gallon of gas costs on average in each state. Dark blue circles indicate expensive prices over $3.00/gallon, and light blue indicates cheap fill ups under $2.50/gallon. Then, we added a second circle to represent both the state and federal taxes levied on gas. This approach transforms the complicated reality of energy taxes into an easily understandable map.
Click here to read the full story on howmuch.net.
Click here to see GasBuddy.com’s heat map of current prices for a gallon of gas.
