2017’s Most & Least Independent States

From WalletHub, Jun 20, 2017

Americans value independence. We fought hard for it during the American Revolutionary War. Today, however, we celebrate not only our freedom from the British crown but also our strong ability to rely upon ourselves as individuals. It’s a virtue we instill in our children, employees, organizations.

But what does it mean for whole populations to be “independent” in the modern sense of the word?

In this report, WalletHub’s data team addressed that question by comparing the 50 states based on five sources of dependency: consumer finances, the government, the job market, international trade and personal vices. They broke down these categories into 32 key indicators of independence in order to determine which states are most self-sustaining.

Read on … LINK

Hawaii

• Rank – 13th
• Overall Score -- 59.83
• Financial Dependency – 15th
• Government Dependency – 26th
• Job-Market Dependency – 14th
• International Trade Dependency – 16th
• Vice Dependency – 16th
• Median Credit Scores – 3rd
• Median Household Income (adj COL) – 50th
• Lowest Unemployment Rate – 1st
• Lowest % of GDP Generated by Exports to other Countries – 1st *

* Tourism is an export.  Apparently this study does not take this into account.