About the Opportunity Index
From Opportunity Nation October 21, 2013
At the core of America is a shared belief that no matter how humble your origins, with hard work and perseverance, you can improve your prospects in life and give your children a shot at a secure and productive future.
For generations, Americans lived this dream. Millions were able to lift themselves out of poverty and climb the ladder of social mobility and economic security.
But today, our American Dream is at risk. Too often it’s your zip code that predetermines your destiny.
Commonly used measures of a community’s success include business oriented rankings and unemployment rates. But these do not provide residents, community leaders, or elected officials the complete picture they need to understand the barriers to opportunity where they live and take action to improve outcomes for more Americans.
- Do jobs pay family-sustaining wages?
- Are students graduating from high school on time?
- Do I have access to healthy food?
- Is my community safe?
The Opportunity Index focuses on the conditions present in different communities and is designed to connect economic, academic, civic and other factors together to help identify concrete solutions to lagging conditions for opportunity and economic mobility. From preschool enrollment to income inequality, from volunteerism to access to healthy food, expanding opportunity depends on the intersection of multiple factors. Developed by Measure of America and Opportunity Nation, the Index gives policymakers and community leaders a powerful tool to advance opportunity-related issues and work, advocate for positive change and track progress over time.
The Index measures 16 indicators, and scores all 50 states plus Washington DC on a scale of 0-100 each year. In addition, more than 3,000 counties are graded A-F, giving policymakers and leaders a useful tool to identify areas for improvement and to gauge progress over time.
We can’t pick our ethnicity, the family we are born into, or our IQ. But if you work hard and play by the rules, your zip code shouldn’t determine the amount of opportunity available to you. In a free society, some inequality is unavoidable. But inequality without the chance for mobility is economically inefficient and unjust. Explore your state and county’s scores, compare to previous years and get involved with the 275 Opportunity Nation coalition organizations working to expand opportunity across the country.
Learn More:
LINK: HAWAII 2013 OPPORTUNITY INDEX
| |
Opportunity
|
Economy
|
Education
|
Community
|
|
Hawaii
|
53.9
|
55.7
|
50.9
|
55.1
|
|
Nat'l Avg.
|
50.9
|
49.4
|
49.3
|
54.1
|
| Economy |
|
NATIONAL AVG. |
| Unemployment Rate (%) |
4.4% |
7.1% |
| Mean Household Income ($) |
$59,931 |
$48,958 |
| Poverty (% of population below poverty line) |
12% |
15.9% |
| 80/20 Ratio (Ratio of household income at the 80th percentile to that of the 20th percentile) |
4.16 |
4.94 |
| Banking Institutions (commercial banks, savings institutions, and credit unions per 10,000 residents) |
3.48 |
3.96 |
| Households Spending Less than 30% of Household Income on Housing Costs (%) |
53.9% |
62.2% |
| High-Speed Internet (% of households) |
70% |
67.8% |
| Education |
|
NATIONAL AVG. |
| Preschool (% ages 3 and 4 in school) |
55.1% |
47.8% |
| On-Time High School Graduation (% of freshmen who graduate in four years) |
75.4% |
78.2% |
| Associate Degree or Higher (% of adults 25 and older) |
39.1% |
36.3% |
| Community Health & Civic Life |
|
NATIONAL AVG. |
| Group Membership (% of adults 18 and over involved in social, civic, sports, and religious groups) |
30.3% |
35.6% |
| Youth Not in School and Not Working (% ages 16-24) |
12.7% |
14.6% |
| Volunteerism (% of adults ages 18 and older) |
23% |
26.5% |
| Violent Crime (per 100,000 population) |
287.2 |
386.3 |
| Primary Care Providers (per 100,000 population) |
137.8 |
117.9 |
| Grocery Stores and Produce Vendors (per 10,000 population) |
2.3 |
2.2 |
| Population |
1,378,129 |
311,587,816 |