I'm trying to put together a ranking of best states to live in for the 25-34 year old age bracket. I have a dataset with 50 states and ~30 attributes, mostly demographic (population, median income, %race, %college degree, avg rent, property crime per 100k, murders per 100k, etc). There are also a couple previously ranked attributes like best sports teams, best nightlife, best malls, etc.
I'm hoping someone can help me understand the best or most efficient approach to this. I think the first step would be to figure out what constitutes "best state for 25-34 y/o." Beyond that I'm a little unsure. I know I need to use some type of statistical analysis, but I don't really know where to start. Clustering? PCA? Factor analysis? Regression model? Bayesian methods? Other??
Other things to note... I'm using R, so even suggestions on particular packages to use would be helpful; there are null values throughout the dataset; I'm much less concerned with a final answer than I am with understanding the ideas and concepts behind the approach. Happy to answer any specific questions, as well!
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