The best and worst in Illinois, from a new report on jobs, education, environment
.jpg "Here’s where Illinois struggled and performed strongly in the recent State of the States report.")
Illinois was recently named the 27th-best state in the nation by a recent report, performing below-average on metrics related to the environment, income inequality and murder rates, but with stronger outcomes in other areas.
The bipartisan State of the States Report was created and funded by Tulane University, and is released by the university’s State of the Nation Project. The report evaluated all 50 states and Washington D.C. on 31 measures such as child mortality rates, voter participation, freedom of the press, economic output, education, life expectancy and more. Researchers used more than 30 years worth of data on more than 4,000 indicators to compile the analysis.
The top five best-performing states were Minnesota, New Hampshire, Iowa, Vermont and Massachusetts, while Mississippi, Nevada, West Virginia, New Mexico and Louisiana landed in the bottom.
“At a time of such polarization, misinformation and pessimism, it’s important to get a clear sense of how we’re really doing on what matters most. It turns out that states — red and blue — mostly share the same struggles,” Douglas Harris, director of the State of the Nation Project and an economics professor in the School of Liberal Arts at Tulane, said in a June 9 press release. “This is the first report of its kind to examine not only economic outcomes but social, civic and personal outcomes by state.”
Illinois ranked higher on average for mental health, trust and the economy, the report found, but scored lower for labor force metrics, environment and civil liberties.
Where did Illinois perform well?
The top-scoring individual category in Illinois was 5th place in the nation for economic output. An economist previously told the News-Democrat Illinois is considered a “donor state” because it contributes billions more in federal taxes than the state gets back in federal investments and expenditures.
The reason Illinois contributes more to the federal government than some other states is because Illinois has higher incomes and a “more robust” middle class, Frank Manzo IV, an economist with the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, said in a March 20 interview with the News-Democrat.
The State of the States report also analyzes whether states are improving or worsening in each given metric, and found Illinois is improving on economic output.
Here’s an overview of the other areas in which Illinois performed strongly in the report:
- Depression: ranked 8th in the nation for lowest depression rates, although the rate is worsening.
- Suicide rates: ranked 9th in the nation for lowest suicide rates, but the rate is getting worse.
- Satisfaction with current life: ranked 13th for the greatest percentage of adults who report being very happy with their life. Illinois’ trend for this metric is stable.
- Trust in other people: ranked 13th, but the trend is getting worse.
- Average years in education: ranked 13th for the average number of years of educational attainment for adults age 25 to 64, and the trend is improving.
- Trust in science: ranked 15th for the percentage of population with a great deal of confidence in the scientific community; the trend is “mixed.”
- Fatal overdoses: ranked 16th for the lowest fatal overdose rate, although the trend is getting worse.
Where did Illinois struggle?
Illinois’ worst-performing area was a 47th place ranking for freedom of the press, and the state’s performance is declining.
The specific measure used was the rate of press freedom violations per 1 million population, including assaults and arrests of reporters, damage to their equipment and subpoenas or legal orders for anonymous sources and restricting coverage.
Here are the other areas in which Illinois performed below-average, according to the report:
- Net greenhouse gas emissions: ranked 46th, with a mixed trend
- Long-term unemployment rate: ranked 45th for the percentage of adults ages 25 to 54 who are unemployed for six months or more, and the trend is getting worse.
- Income inequality: ranked 42nd, with a stable trend.
- Social isolation: ranked 41st for the percentage of adults who are not getting the social and emotional support they need. Illinois’ trend is unclear due to insufficient data.
- Hourly earnings growth: ranked 40th, with a mixed trend.
- Youth depression: ranked 39th for the percentage of children ages 12 to 17 who reported experiencing a major depressive episode in the past year. The trend is getting worse.
- Air quality: ranked 37th, with an improving trend.
- Murder rate: ranked 35th, with an improving trend.
Illinois scored around the middle of the pack for metrics such as child mortality, voter participation, poverty, volunteerism, trust in the federal government, shootings, life expectancy and more.
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