8/9/2019 A Century Apart http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/a-century-apart 1/22 by Kristen Lewis and Sarah Burd-Sharps Team for the Preparation of A Century Apart : Patrick Nolan Guyer | CHIEF STATISTICIAN Ted Lechterman | RESEARCHER Neil Bennett | SENIOR STATISTICAL ADVISOR Humantifc | VISUAL SENSEMAKING New Measures of Well-Being for U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups A CENTURY APART CONTENTS Introduction ....................................................................................................................................2 Key Findings: Nationwide ...................................................................................................................... 4 Key Findings: State-by-State ................................................................................................................ 5 How Do We Stack Up? ........................................................................................................................... 6 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................11 Understanding Human Development ................................................................................................. 12 Indicator Tables ................................................................................................................................... 16 About the American Human Development Project ............................................................................ 22
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How Do We Stack Up? ........................................................................................................................... 6Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................11
Understanding Human Development ................................................................................................. 12Indicator Tables ................................................................................................................................... 16About the American Human Development Project ............................................................................ 22
A CENTURY APART | New Measures of Well-Being for U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups 2
Introduction
An entire century of human progress separatesthe best-off from the worst-off U.S. racial andethnic groups, according to the latest update of the
American Human Development (HD) Index.Our national conversation about race tends to take place in black and white—understandably, given the long shadow cast by America’s history of slavery andsegregation. Yet the greatest disparities in human well-being to be found in ourmultiethnic society are not between African Americans and whites, but ratherbetween Asian Americans in one state and Native Americans in another. An entirecentury of human progress separates the worst-off from the best-off groups within
the U.S., according to the latest update of the American Human Development(HD) Index.Asian Americans in New Jersey are the group with the highest American HD
Index scores. They currently experience levels of well-being that, if current trendscontinue, the country as a whole will reach in about fty years. At the other endof the spectrum, Native Americans in South Dakota lag more than a half-centurybehind the rest of the nation in terms of health, education, and income, the threeareas of human development that the American HD Index measures. New Jersey
Asian Americans live, on average, an astonishing 26 years longer , are 11 timesmore likely to have a graduate degree , and earn $35,610 more per year thanSouth Dakota Native Americans. This gap in wages exceeds the median annualearnings of the typical American worker (about $30,000).
These are some of the ndings revealed by the American Human DevelopmentProject’s recent analysis of of cial government statistics. This new study buildson the methodology introduced in The Measure of America: American HumanDevelopment Report 2008-2009 (Columbia University Press, 2008), which usesa composite index to rank the well-being of people by state and congressionaldistrict. The 2008-2009 report included HD Index rankings for racial and ethnicgroups at the national level. 1 The current analysis drills down to assess disparitiesby race and ethnicity within each state. HD Index tables for every ethnic and racialgroup are available on pages 16-21.
1. This report follows the race and ethnicity designations of the U.S. Census Bureau. These include the following major racialgroups: African Americans, Asians and Paci c Islanders, Native Americans and Alaska Natives, and whites. However, data
used in this report draw on different data sets, which categorize racial and ethnic groups differently. For instance, somesources collect information on “Asians and Paci c Islanders,” while others collect data on “Asians.” There is signi cantoverlap among these categories, but they are not exactly the same. People of Hispanic Origin (referred to in this report asLatinos) are regarded as an ethnic group and may be of any race.
A CENTURY APART | New Measures of Well-Being for U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups 3
The American Human Development Index measures three basic building blocksof a good life—health , education , and income . The data that inform these analysesare derived in the following ways:
INTRODUCTION
A Long and Healthy Lifeis measured using lifeexpectancy at birth, calculatedby the AHDP from 2006 datafrom the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention andCDC WONDER Database.
Access to Knowledge is measured using twoindicators: educationaldegree attainment for theadult population age 25 andolder; and school enrollmentat all levels of education forthe population age three andolder. The data come from theAmerican Community Surveyof the U.S. Census Bureau,2007 one-year and three-yearestimates.
A Decent Standard of Livingis measured using medianannual gross per sonalearnings data from theAmerican Community Surveyof the U.S. Census Bureau,2007 one-year and three-yearestimates. These earnings
gures are presented inin ation-adjusted 2008dollars.
American
Human DevelopmentINDEX
3
HealthINDEX
+ +Education
INDEXIncomeINDEX
INDICATORS
A DecentStandard of LivingAccess toKnowledgeA Long andHealthy Life
Life expectancyat birth
Medianearnings
Schoolenrollment
Educationaldegree attainment
GEOGRAPHY GENDER RACE / ETHNICITYLENSES
These three sets of indicators are thencombined into a single number that fallson a scale from 0 to 10 , with 10 being thehighest. (For a more detailed explanation ofthe Index, see the Methodological Notes .)
4A CENTURY APART | New Measures of Well-Being for U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups
KEY FINDINGS
Large Gaps In Well-Being Separate America’s
Major Racial And Ethnic Groups Nationwide
In terms of income, U.S. median earnings are $29,740per person. Asian Americans and whites earn themost; Latinos and Native Americans earn the least. Native Americans median earnings are less than$22,000.
AsianAmericans
7.54
AsianAmericans
7.99
AsianAmericans
86.6
AsianAmericans
$34,169
Latinos
4.08
AfricanAmericans
4.39
NativeAmericans
74.2
Latinos
$22,279
Whites
5.51
Whites
5.62
Latinos
82.8
Whites
$32,656
NativeAmericans
3.21
NativeAmericans
3.31
Whites
78.5
AfricanAmericans
$24,866
AfricanAmericans
3.77
Latinos
2.20
NativeAmericans
$21,852
AfricanAmericans
73.4
Asian Americans score the highest on the AmericanHD Index, followed by whites, Latinos, AfricanAmericans, and Native Americans and Alaskan
Natives. Based on 2007 Census Bureau gures, non-Hispanic whites make up about 66 percent of the U.S.population; Latinos, 15 percent; African Americans, 12percent; Asian Americans, 4 percent; American Indiansand Alaskan Natives, 1 percent.
In terms of health, which is measured by life expec-tancy, Asian Americans are the longest-lived (86.6years), followed by Latinos (82.8 years), who outlive
whites by more than four years. In seven states,Latinos can expect to live over 85 years (NJ, MA,NV, IL, RI, WA, OR).Native Americans and AfricanAmericans live the shortest lives .
Human Development Health
HD INDEX
EDUCATION INDEX
LIFE EXPECTANCY IN YEARS
MEDIAN PERSONAL EARNINGS
In terms of access to knowledge, the Index measuresa combination of educational attainment and schoolenrollment. On the attainment scale, nearly one in
ve Asian American adults has a graduate degree .Latinos lag in education; nearly four in ten adults 25and older did not complete high school.
A CENTURY APART | New Measures of Well-Being for U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups
African Americans in Maryland livethree and a half years longer, onaverage, are more than twice as likelyto have a graduate degree, and earnalmost $16,000 a year more than AfricanAmericans in Louisiana.
African Americans
Native Americans Whites
Whites in Washington, D.C. experiencethe highest levels of well-being, whites inWest Virginia the lowest. Whites in D.C.live about seven years longer, earn morethan twice the annual wages, and are
ve times more likely to have completedcollege than their West Virginiacounterparts.
Native Americans in California earnmore than twice as much as NativeAmericans in South Dakota andlive about eleven years longer. Thevariation in educational attainment andenrollment between the two groups isslight, however.
Washington, D.C. West Virginia
Maryland Louisiana
Asian Americans
Asian Americans in New Jersey havea life expectancy of almost 91 years.New Jersey Asian Americans live nineyears longer than Asian Americans inLouisiana, and they earn more thantwice as much.
Interestingly, although the education
score for Asian Americans in NewJersey is higher than that of AsianAmericans in Louisiana (the state withthe lowest scores for this racial/ethnicgroup), Asian Americans in Louisiananonetheless best the educationalaverage for the U.S. as a whole.
New Jersey Louisiana
California S. Dakota
Latinos
Latinos in New Jersey live nearly eightyears longer and earn almost $7,000 ayear more than Latinos in Alabama.
New Jersey Alabama
The unique combinations of political, social, economic, environmental, and historical realities that differentiateone U.S. state from another can yield strikingly different outcomes for the same racial and ethnic group. 2 Thusthe “best” state for one group (i.e., the state in which that group has the highest scores on the American HDIndex) might be an average state for another group. The gures below spotlight the states with the BEST andWORST scores for each racial and ethnic group.
Who’s Better Off State-by-State?
These Gaps Become Chasms When We Look
at Racial and Ethnic Groups State-by-State
2. These ndings about well-being levels of people from different racial and ethnic groups are broad generalizations that group together people with vastly differingbackgrounds, cultures, and lived experiences. This inevitably glosses over important differences within these categories. While it would be preferable to provide data forthese sub-groups, the constraints of our methodology and the limitations of available data restrict the analysis to the groupings as presented here.
A H I G H S C H O O L D I P L O M A O R H I G H E R
Asian Americans
African Americans
Native Americans
U.S. Averages
Nationwide, whites have the highest rate of high
school completion ; nearly nine in ten white adults haveat least a high school degree. Asian Americans are aclose second in the country as a whole and nish rst inseveral states. Latinos have the lowest completion rate ;only about six in ten Latino adults have a high schooldegree.
GOOD NEWS
In Washington, D.C., virtuallyall white adults (98 percent)have completed at least highschool.
BAD NEWS
In Arkansas, more than half ofLatino adults today did not nishhigh school.
8A CENTURY APART | New Measures of Well-Being for U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups
Source: High school completion rates come from t he American Community Survey, U.S. Census Bureau,2007 one-year and three-year estimates.
A CENTURY APART | New Measures of Well-Being for U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups
Source: Median personal earnings data come from the American Community Survey of the U.S. CensusBureau, 2007 one-year and three-year estimates. These earnings gures are presented in in ation-adjusted 2008 dollars.
In the country as a whole, Asian Americans
and whites earn the most , Native Americansand Latinos the least .
GOOD NEWS
In four states (CA, MD, NJ, NY)and Washington, D.C., AfricanAmericans’ median earningsare above the national average.
BAD NEWS
However, the median earningsof African Americans in thecountry as a whole ($24,866)are below the national medianby nearly $5,000 .
UnderstandingHuman DevelopmentHuman development is about what ordinary peoplecan do and be. It is formally de ned as the process ofenlarging people’s freedoms and opportunities andimproving their well-being.
13A CENTURY APART | New Measures of Well-Being for U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups
UNDERSTANDING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
What is Human Development?Human development is about what ordinary people can do and be. It is formallyde ned as the process of enlarging people’s freedoms and opportunities andimproving their well-being. The human development approach emphasizes theeveryday experiences of everyday people. It encompasses numerous factors thatshape people’s opportunities and enable them to live lives of meaning, choice, andvalue. These factors include the capability to participate in the decisions that affectone’s life, to earn a decent living, to have access to a quality education and afford-able health care, to practice one’s religious beliefs, to enjoy cultural liberty, to livefree from fear and violence—and many more.
The human development concept is the brainchild of the late economistMahbub ul Haq. At the World Bank in the 1970s, and later as minister of nance inPakistan, Dr. Haq argued that existing measures of human progress failed to ac-count for the true purpose of development—to improve people’s lives. In particular,he believed that the commonly used measure of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)alone was an inadequate measure of well-being.
Dr. Haq often cited the example of Vietnam and Pakistan; both had the sameGDP per capita, around $2,000 per year, but Vietnamese, on average, lived a fulleight years longer than Pakistanis and were twice as likely to be able to read. Inother words, money alone did not tell the whole story; the same income was buy-ing two dramatically different levels of human well-being. Working with Harvardeconomist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and other gifted economists, in 1990Dr. Haq published the rst Human Development Report, which had been commis-sioned by the United Nations Development Programme.
This approach soon gained support as a useful tool for analyzing the well-be-ing of large populations. In addition to the global Human Development Report that
comes out annually, over 600 national and regional reports have been produced inmore than 160 countries in the last 15 years, with an impressive record of spurring
The humandevelopmentmodel emphasizesthe everyday
experiences ofordinary people .
Two Approaches to Understanding Progress in America
14A CENTURY APART | New Measures of Well-Being for U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups
UNDERSTANDING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
public debate and political engagement. Today, the global report is a trusted refer-ence worldwide, the HDI is a global standard, and regional and national reports are
well-known vehicles for change. Around the world, the HDI presents a snapshot ofcurrent conditions, stimulates competition to improve, in uences resource alloca-tion decisions, and provides a benchmark for tomorrow.
How is Human Development Different?The American Human Development Project uses of cial government statistics
to create something new in the U.S.: an American HD Index using an easy-to-understand composite of comparable, consistent indicators of education, income,and health. Three features make the American HD Index approach particularlyuseful for understanding and improving the human condition in the U.S.: It combines the three most critical building blocks of a good life into one mea-sure. Many organizations track statistics in speci c areas, typically those in whichthey are actively engaged. Other initiatives present, all in one place, statistics fromdisparate sources and in formats that can be understood by laypeople. The AHDP
uses these valuable data sources to develop a composite index and interpret itsresults within a values-based analytical framework (the capabilities approach ofNobel laureate and Harvard professor Amartya Sen) that puts people’s well-beingat the center. The cross-sectoral American HD Index thus broadens the analysis ofthe interlocking factors that create opportunities in our society, fuel advantage anddisadvantage, and determine life chances. For example, research overwhelminglypoints to the dominant role of education in increasing life span. In fact, those whoacquire education beyond high school have an average life expectancy seven yearslonger than those whose education stops with high school. 3
It focuses on outcomes. The Human Development Index focuses on the endresult of efforts to bring about change. It is indeed important to collect manyindicators in order to understand speci c problems related to people’s lives (e.g.,the rate of asthma in a particular community) or to understand what is beingdone about it (e.g., total funding for a health clinic), but at the end of the day, it iscritical to measure whether you have actually made a difference in contributing tothe larger goal (i.e., longer, healthier lives). Increasingly, organizations are askingthemselves, “Are we making a difference? Which areas of intervention or ‘policylevers’ will help move the dial on the issues we care about?” The American HumanDevelopment Project helps them answer these fundamental questions. It alsoopens up a larger and arguably more critical question: Are we working with theright groups of people on the right problems—those that most severely constrainpeople’s choices, freedoms, and opportunities?
3. Meara et al., “The Gap Gets Bigger: Changes in Mortality and Life Expectancy, by Education, 1981-2000.”
The HumanDevelopmentIndex combinesthree criticalbuilding blocksof a good life
into one singlemeasure.
In essence, theIndex evaluatesthe end resultof efforts tobring about
15A CENTURY APART | New Measures of Well-Being for U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups
UNDERSTANDING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
It allows for apples-to-apples comparisons among different groups ofAmericans over time and across space. Because the American HD Index uses eas-
ily understood indicators that are collected regularly, available down to the countylevel, and comparable across geographic regions and over time, it allows for ashared frame of reference. This shared frame of reference enables us to assesswell-being and permits apples-to-apples comparisons from place to place as wellas from year to year.
How is Human Development Measured?The human development concept is broad: it encompasses the economic, social,legal, psychological, cultural, environmental, and political processes that de nethe range of options available to us. By contrast, the Human Development Indexmeasures just three fundamental human development dimensions: a long andhealthy life, access to knowledge, and a decent standard of living. The three com-ponents of the Human Development Index—longevity, knowledge, and income—arevalued by people the world over as building blocks of a good life, and good proxyindicators are available for each. In the American Human Development Index, 4 these components are weighted equally and are measured using the followingdata:
• A Long and Healthy Life is measured using life expectancy at birth, calcu-lated from 2006 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionand CDC WONDER Database.
• Access to Knowledge is measured using two indicators: educationaldegree attainment for the adult population age 25 and older; and schoolenrollment for the population age three and older. The data come from theAmerican Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau, 2007 one-yearand three-year estimates.
• A Decent Standard of Living is measured using median annual grosspersonal earnings, also from the American Community Survey of the U.S.Census Bureau, 2007 one-year and three-year estimates. These earnings
gures are presented in in ation-adjusted 2008 dollars.These three sets of indicators are then combined into a single number that falls ona scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest. (For a more detailed explanation ofthe Index, see the Methodological Notes .)
4. The United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report series uses similar categories but differentmeasures for its Human Development Index (HDI). The American Human Development Project has modi ed the HD Index tobetter measure progress in an af uent-country context. Thus, American HD Index scores and UN HDI scores are not comparable.For more information on the differences between the two indices, see the methodological notes at the end of this report.
The HumanDevelopmentIndex is calculatedusing of cialgovernment
22A CENTURY APART | New Measures of Well-Being for U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups
The American Human Development Project is dedicated to stimulating fact-basedpublic debate about and political attention to issues that affect people’s well-being and access to opportunity in the United States. The hallmark of this workis the American Human Development Index, a measure that paints a portrait ofAmericans today and empowers communities with a tool to track progress in areaswe all care about: health, education, and income.
In July 2008, the project launched The Measure of America: American HumanDevelopment Report 2008-2009, the rst-ever report on human development in theUnited States or any af uent country. In 2009, the project released two state-levelhuman development reports. Through these studies and the project’s interactivewebsite, the American Human Development Project aims to breathe life into
numbers, using data to create compelling narratives that foster understanding ofand support for social change.
The American Human Development Project is an initiative of the Social ScienceResearch Council and is made possible through the generous support of theConrad N. Hilton Foundation and The Lincy Foundation.
About the American Human Development Project
American Human Development ProjectSocial Science Research CouncilOne Pierrepont Plaza, 15th FloorBrooklyn, NY 11201 EMAILcontact @measureofamerica.org
WEBSITEhttp://www.measureofamerica.org
FACEBOOKhttp://www.facebook.com/measureofamerica
TWITTERhttp://www.twitter.com/AHDP
A PORTRAIT OFCALIFORNIAComing this Fall
THE MEASURE OF AMERICA: American Human DevelopmentReport 2008–2009 uses a well-honed international approach toassess the well-being of differentpopulation groups within the UnitedStates. Contains rankings of U.S.states, congressional districts,and ethnic groups. For purchasethrough Columbia University Pressor amazon.com.
A PORTRAIT OF LOUISIANA: LouisianaHuman Development Report 2009 was commissioned by the LouisianaDisaster Recovery Foundation,Foundation for the Mid South, andOxfam America. It calls for action toaddress the acute human vulnerabilitythat persists ve years after HurricaneKatrina. Available online.
A PORTRAIT OF MISSISSIPPI:Mississippi Human DevelopmentReport 2009 was commissioned bythe Mississippi State ConferenceNAACP and Oxfam America to examinewell-being levels in the state by county,gender, and race and to stimulateaction to address Mississippi’sdisparities. Available online.
A PORTRAIT OF CALIFORNIA:California Human DevelopmentReport 2010-2011 (coming this fall)
To obtain copies of these reports andto use an array of interactive mapsand tools, please visit:www.measureofamerica .org