Choropleth Map Part 1

I chose the Albers Equal Area Conic Projection for Hawaii and Alaska because... well, because ArcMap had a specific Albers projection for each state. I assumed they're optimal for each one. It would be odd if the Alaska Albers Equal Area Conic Projection was best suited to, say, Belgium and not the state it was developed for. I chose the North America Albers Equal Area Conic Projection for the lower 48 just to keep the Albers theme going. Actually, the North America Albers projection looks the way I expect the contiguous United States to look. I choose the color scheme to enhance the contrast between states that experienced more or less growth. The red/pink color offered enough visual differentiation in the middle classifications for me to see clearly.