ICYMI: Connecticut -- The Best State to Live In?

Editor’s Note: This article originally ran on Waterford Patch on April 30. Click here to view the original article and check out the active conversation thread in the comments.

Income, education, health — those factors help make Connecticut the best state to live in, the Measure of America study found. The Nutmeg state ranked the highest on the ‘Human Development Index’ scale, mainly comprised of those three factors.

But what does that mean?

“Human development is defined as the process of enlarging people’s freedoms and opportunities and improving their well-being,” according to the report. “Human development is about the real freedom ordinary people have to decide who to be, what to do, and how to live.”

Connecticut residents are largely singing a different tune. We asked for people’s thoughts on the findings on CT Patch Facebook pages and here were some of the responses:

• “I assume it’s not an economic or freedom indicator?” — Mat Bacon

• “They must not have factored in cost of living or job growth.” — Mike Johnson

• “This has got to be a joke!” — Linda Candels

• “Best state for what? Debt? Taxes?” — Mike Hildreth Jr.

• “I find it a bit confusing as reports come out as we have the highest taxes in the nation. Also, New Haven & Hartford being named the most dangerous cities to live in.” — Melanie Tiberia Frodel

• “I think that as usual in CT, someone paid someone off to say that, and our taxes will go up some more because we will have to pay that payoff with our middle class. Or poverty level taxes.” — Camille Russo Lahr

Digging Deeper

The study isn’t about economics, as it turns out.

“While Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and other money metrics tell us how the economy is doing, the American Human Development Index measures how people are doing, taking into account health, education, and earnings,” the report stated.

Health

The study compares Connecticut to Wyoming, as they have similar GDPs per capita, in the $65,000 to $68,000 range.

“An over-reliance on economic metrics such as GDP per capita can provide misleading information about the everyday conditions of people’s lives,” the report stated. “Connecticut and Wyoming, for instance, have nearly the same GDP per capita. Yet Connecticut residents, on average, can expect to outlive their western compatriots by roughly two and a half years, are 40 percent more likely to have bachelor’s degrees, and typically earn $6,000 more per year.”

Related

Patch reported on life expectancy data from the report’s data, broken up by Congressional District:

• First Congressional District
• Second Congressional District
• Third Congressional District
• Fourth Congressional District
• Fifth Congressional District

Income

“Analysis of the distribution of median personal earnings across the nation reveals several interesting patterns,” according to the report. “Pockets of both high and low earning are found in every regional division of the country. The typical worker in New England earns $35,059, about $4,600 above the national average. New England, which comprises Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, has the highest median earnings among the nine regional divisions.”

Education

Connecticut’s District 4 is one of the 20 highest-scoring Congressional districts, based on the following categories: life expectancy, degree of education completed, school enrollment and median earnings.

Towns in District 4 include Bridgeport, Darien, Fairfield, Greenwich, Oxford and Wilton.

“... Of the twenty-five best districts in terms of preschool enrollment (with rates of 64 percent and up), seven are in New York, five are in New Jersey, five are in California, two each are in Connecticut and Illinois, and one each is in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Washington, DC,” the report noted. “In contrast, in the bottom twenty-five districts for this indicator, one-third of preschoolers or less are enrolled in school.”

More Details

For more information on the study, visit the following links:

• Geographics of Opportunity: Ranking Well-Being by Congressional District
• Measure of America: About Human Development
• Measure of America Maps

What do you think about the study? Is Connecticut a great place to live? What makes it great and how can the state be better?

Weigh in via the comments section below.

Photo Credit: Jaimie Cura