Distressed Community Index 2017

America's great divide:
The large parts of America 
 behind by today's economy
Kim Hart https://www.axios.com    

Economic prosperity is concentrated in America's elite zip codes, but economic stability outside of those communities is rapidly deteriorating.

Data: Economic Innovation Group

Distressed Communities Index

Map: Lazaro Gamio / Axios

What that means: U.S. geographical economic inequality is growing, meaning your economic opportunity is more tied to your location than ever before. A large portion of the country is being left behind by today's economy, according to a county-by-county report released this morning by the Economic Innovation Group, a non-profit research and advocacy organization. This was a major election theme that helped thrust Donald Trump to the White House.

The 2017 Distressed Communities Index

The Distressed Communities Index (DCI) combines seven complementary metrics into a broad-based assessment of community economic well-being in the United States. Relying on Census Bureau data for the years 2011 to 2015, the DCI covers over 26,000 zip codes and 99.9 percent of the U.S. population as well as cities, counties and congressional districts, enabling Americans to understand how their local well-being stacks up at every scale of life. The DCI groups places evenly into five different tiers based on their performance on the index: Prosperous, comfortable, mid-tier, at risk, and distressed.

As you’ll see below, the U.S. economy contains a diverse and fragmented landscape of economic well-being—one in which many communities are flourishing, while far too many are left behind.

The economic well-being of American communities

The 2017 DCI finds that 52.3 million Americans live in economically distressed communities—the one-fifth of zip codes that score worst on the DCI. That represents one in six Americans, or 17 percent of the U.S. population.
By comparison, 84.8 million Americans live in prosperous communities—the one-fifth of zip codes that score best on the DCI. These top-performing zip codes contain 27 percent of the country’s population, a far greater share than any other tier.
Underlying indicators of well-being vary drastically across the different tiers of U.S. communities.
READ MORE > http://eig.org/dci

Most of America is deteriorating economically.

• Economic prosperity is concentrated in America's elite ZIP Codes, but economic stability outside of those communities is rapidly deteriorating.

That's the stark conclusion by Axios tech editor Kim Hart, in one of the most sobering pieces we have run in the eight months since we launched.

• What that means: U.S. geographical economic inequality is growing, meaning your economic opportunity is more tied to your location than ever before.
• A large portion of the country is being left behind by today's economy, according to a county-by-county report released this morning by the Economic Innovation Group, a non-profit research and advocacy organization.

Key findings:

• New jobs are clustered in the economy's best-off places, leaving one of every four new jobs for the bottom 60% of ZIP Codes.
• Most of today's distressed communities have seen zero net gains in employment and business establishment since 2000. In fact, more than half have seen net losses on both fronts.
• Half of adults living in distressed ZIP Codes are attempting to find gainful employment in the modern economy armed with only a high school education at best.
• The healthier the economy, the healthier the person: People in distressed communities die five years earlier.

The map >> http://eig.org/2017-dci-map-national-counties-map
The fastest growing Western cities (such as Gilbert, Ariz., and Plano, Texas) and "tech hubs" (Seattle, San Francisco, Austin) dominate the list of the most prosperous cities in the country.
Cities that were once industrial powerhouses in the Midwest and Northeast, like Cleveland and Newark, are now more likely to be on the distressed end of the spectrum.
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• The cycle: Fewer new companies are forming than ever before, which disproportionately hurts distressed communities. The new businesses that do get started are often located in thriving communities where educated workers are. So talented people are forced to leave places with little economic opportunity — even if they have personal and family reasons to stay — to move to those where there is opportunity.

Be smart: This isn't a Republican or Democratic problem.
At every level of government, both parties represent distressed areas. But the economic fortunes of haves and have-nots have widened the political chasm, which hasn't been addressed by substantial policy proposals from either side.