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Macomb, IL – People love counting, whether football stats or the family checkbook. Numbers offer a sense of concreteness, and make us cautious or ambitious, aware or scared.
Days after counting blessings on Thanksgiving, a look at how we compare to other geographic areas in health, standards of living and education might cause us to once again show gratitude.
As far as rankings, Illinois' 17th Congressional District (western Illinois) is Number 340 out of 435 U.S. districts; the 18th (central Illinois) is No. 223, and Iowa's 2nd (eastern Iowa) is No. 161, according to Measure of America from the American Human Development Project, an initiative of the Social Sciences Research Council funded in part by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.
What's "human development" mean?
"Human development is defined as a process of enlarging people's freedoms and opportunities and improving their well-being," says the project. "Human development is about the real freedom ordinary people have to decide who to be, what to do, and how to live."
And what do the rankings mean?
For one thing, the United States as a nation-state - compared to other countries and individual American states - is ranked at No. 8. That's good (although it's unlikely that we'll hear many Tea Partiers shouting, "We're number eight! We're number eight!!").
In a general ranking of well-being, the project finds this area is about in the middle or slightly lower in terms of life expectancy (about 77 years), median earnings (about $25,000 a year) and education (a ranking of about 5 on a scale of 10).
Achieving an average education earning $25,000 a year and living to 77 aren't bad.
A breakdown of the aforementioned Congressional districts, however, shows some differences between eastern Iowa, western Illinois and central Illinois.
Iowans in the 2nd live about two years longer, to 80. Western Illinois has 14% of its adults with less than a high school education compared to 10% for central Illinois and 8% for eastern Iowa. Eastern Iowa is about 10 percentage points higher for bachelor's degrees than central Illinois (27% to 17%, with western Illinois at 24%). Central Illinois has considerably higher earnings at $28,000 compared to eastern Iowa ($26,000) and western Illinois ($23,000).
In broad categories, central Illinois is ahead on income, but eastern Iowa is considerably better off in both health and education.
The project notes, "Each of the country's 435 congressional districts has approximately 650,000 inhabitants, except for a few districts located in states with small populations. Knowing the scores of other Congressional districts helps people understand how different parts of the country are doing in terms of progress and opportunity."
Comparing Iowa's 2nd and Illinois 17th and 18th districts to the average of the top and bottom few districts in the country is interesting, too. On a scale of 10, with 10 being the highest, the top areas average an overall Human Development Index of 8.4. Eastern Iowa is 5.35; central Illinois 4.98; western Illinois 4.32. The lowest average is 2.15.
The project uses the three core elements of health, education and standard of living because they're closely connected. It's literally vital "to live in a healthy environment, to maintain a healthy lifestyle, to receive quality medical care, and to attain the highest possible standard of physical and mental health," the project reminds us, adding, "Education is critical to people's real freedom to decide what to do and who to be [and] Income is essential to meeting basic needs like food and shelter - and to moving beyond these necessities to a life of genuine choice and freedom."
Economic opportunity is perhaps the most important factor. The project states, "There is a very high correlation between income and the Human Development Index, for two reasons. First, income is one of the three HD Index components. Second, income is correlated with education and, to a lesser degree, with health, the other two HD Index components."
So, this area should feel OK - grateful for the blessings we have here - and inspired to work harder to do more to ensure that people have the incomes and educations to achieve those and the health that makes enjoyment possible.
Now, is there any leftover turkey dressing still in the frig? Cranberry salad? Green-bean casserole?
(Calories? Aw, who's counting?)
Bill Knight is a freelance writer who teaches at Western Illinois University