As Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson vetoes the ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth, our team decided to take a look at the last five years of data around searches specifically relevant for the FTM community and those who are in the process of transition — "FTM packers". We wanted to find out which of the largest locations in the US are most interested in FTM packers, and how this interest has changed over time.
📊 What This Data Shows
The searches for "FTM packers" reveal how trends are moving towards acceptance and celebration of authenticity in different locations across the US. We analyzed the top 48 largest metropolitan areas to understand search interest and community engagement.
Top 10 Most FTM-Packer-Interested Locations
Las Vegas
NevadaTucson
ArizonaColorado Springs
ColoradoWichita
KansasAlbuquerque
New MexicoPortland
OregonNew York
New YorkEl Paso
TexasOklahoma City
OklahomaNew Orleans
Louisiana
Heat map showing relative search interest across US metropolitan areas
✈️ Traveling with Your Packer?
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The FTM Packer Race
With New York being the leader in absolute searches, and the San Francisco Bay area keeping its honorable second place in the last five years, there's been a lot of action over time for other locations.
Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Portland, and Denver are all going head-to-head — switching places over the years. Watch the exciting race in this moving graph:
📋 Methodology
For this research we used the following data:
- 2018 MSA (metropolitan statistical area) population data for the 48 largest areas in the US by Data USA (developed by Deloitte and Datawheel).
- Monthly search volumes and location targeting reach data by Google Ads for "FTM packers" query.
How we calculated interest:
When checking search volumes in specific locations in Google Ads, the tool provides data based on potential reach estimates. Reach is an estimate of how many people are in, or interested in, the location you select, based on the number of signed-in users visiting Google sites.
For instance, to find out how many people are searching for "FTM packers" in New York, the potential reach would be estimated as 28.4M people. Additionally, the MSA population data on datausa.io estimates New York MSA as 20M (2018).
Taking this into account, we calculated the average of these two variables: (Reach + MSA population)/2. This way we're able to estimate approximate interest in each greater city area and compare these cities with a question in mind: in which of these areas are people interested in "FTM packers" the most?
Emisil.com is a maker of FTM prosthetics and realistic silicone products since 2008. Our mission is to make people who are struggling with their appearance confident and happy.