Hamilton County’s 357,000 residents are a little more than 0.1% of the 332 million national citizens (1/1,000). It’s typical 80 National Merit Semifinalists are 0.5% of the 16,000 national total (1/200). It produces 5 times more than its “fair share”.
The 13 lowest population states range from 0.6 to 1.8 million citizens, averaging 1 million. Hamilton County has one-third as many citizens, on average.
Public Sheridan HS awards some NMS semifinalists. Hamilton County has a large number of students at private schools that do not report NMS semifinalists by their place of residence. University, Park Tudor, Heritage Christian, Cathedral, Roncalli and Guerin. I estimate that there are another 3-5 Hamilton County winners each year.
Hamilton County students benefit from their abilities, parental and neighbor involvement, high expectations, extracurricular opportunities and strong school systems.
Typical annual National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists:
West Virginia 63
Hawaii 60
New Hampshire 76
Maine 62
Montana 48
Rhode Island 45
Delaware 40
South Dakota 35
North Dakota 30
Alaska 35
DC 30
Vermont 35
Wyoming 20
https://www.statsamerica.org/sip/rank_list.aspx?rank_label=pop1
https://patch.com/new-hampshire/across-nh/hundreds-nh-students-are-2023-national-merit-semifinalists
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