Giving Compass' Take:

• The 2018 Social Progress Index: US States shows a concerning gap between states' economic success and the social progress citizens experience. 

• What policies are employed by the states that are keeping social progress in step with economic growth? How can other states replicate this success?

• Education spending varies dramatically by state and district. One study calculated how much it would it cost to get all students up to average.

2018 Social Progress Index: US States released on April 11th shows the growing economy is not working for millions of Americans who face stagnant or declining living standards. Each state is evaluated on how well it provides its people with the things they really care about, including health, safety, shelter, education, rights and freedom.

The Social Progress Index represents what Americans need and expect to thrive.

Key Findings from the 2018 Social Progress Index: US States
  • Higher performance states are clustered together in the Northeast and Upper Midwest regions, while the Deep South is a cluster of weaker performance.
  • Top-ranked Massachusetts outperforms states with similar levels of income by the second-widest margin, behind only Maine. Equally tellingly, last-ranked Mississippiunderperforms its economic peers by a greater margin than almost any other state, narrowly behind Alaska.
  • There is a real difference in performance between blue states and red states: 15 of the top 16 states are blue, and the other is purple. North Dakota, the best performing red state, is 17th.
  • Some states are geographic islands of strong or weak performance that stand out from their neighbors. Colorado is a high performing (ranked 11th) state surrounded by relatively lower performing states.
  • Several states do a better job at using their limited resources to produce positive social and environmental outcomes for residents. The states who struggle to use their incomes to improve living conditions include: Alaska, Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma (aka the greatest underperformers).
  • On average, states exhibit their strongest performance on the index’s Shelter component, although many of the fastest-growing states in the country, like California, struggle to make decent, affordable housing available to residents.

Read the full article on the 2018 Social Progress Index at Social Progress Imperative.