2017’s States with the Most At-Risk Youth

From WalletHub, July 18, 2017

Growing up can be hard. Without a stable home, positive role models and tools for success, many young Americans fall behind their peers and experience a rocky transition to adulthood. Today, about one in eight individuals between the ages of 16 and 24 are neither working nor attending school. Others suffer from poor health conditions that hinder their ability to develop physically or socially.

Such issues not only affect young people later in life, but they also prove detrimental to society as a whole.

According to a report from Mission: Readiness, for instance, 71 percent of young adults today are ineligible to join the U.S. military due primarily to a lack of basic academic skills, criminal records or health issues such as obesity and diabetes. Research shows that environments where such problems are most prevalent often increase an adolescent's risk of adverse outcomes, including economic hardship, early pregnancy and violence, especially in adulthood.

To determine the places where young Americans are not faring as well as others in the same age group, WalletHub's analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 10 key indicators of youth risk. Their data set ranges from share of disconnected youth to labor force participation rate among youth to youth poverty rate….

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Hawaii

• Rank -- 34th
• Score -- 41.09
• % of Youth without HS Diploma -- 51st
• Youth Poverty Rate -- 49th
• % of Homeless Youth -- 5th