The Geography of Well-Being

Economic growth has long been the basic metric through which we evaluate economic and social progress. But a growing number of policymakers and experts argue that we need a better way to measure “well being.”

In a report released today, the Social Science Research Council’s Measure of America project takes a crack at it with their own metric. Inspired by the UN’s influential Human Development Index for nations, their American Human Development Index develops measures of well-being for America’s 435 congressional districts (plus Washington, D.C.). This allows us to see how patterns of uneven and unequal socio-economic well-being exist not just between but within many of America’s largest metros. The overall index is based on three key dimensions of well-being: