Connecticut’s Opportunity for Economic Mobility Ranked Consistently High in 40 Year Analysis

A recent report, issued by Opportunity Nation, a bipartisan organization working to promote economic mobility, and Measure of America, a project of the Social Science Research Council, cited Connecticut as one of two states with consistently high opportunity for economic mobility from 1970 to 2010.

The report measured 10 factors in three categories:

1. Economy: unemployment rate, median household income, percent of people below the poverty line, and the Gini Index of income inequality.
2. Education: percentage of three- and four-year-olds enrolled in preschool, percentage of high school freshmen that graduate in four years, and percentage of adults with an associate’s degree or higher.
3. Community: violent crime per 100,000 people, people aged 16 to 24 not in school nor employed, and medical doctors per 100,000 people.

Each of the three categories was given equal weight and then a score was calculated for 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010.