The rankings are part of an American Human Development Index designed to measure the disparities between different racial and ethnic groups across states, factoring life expectancy at birth, educational degree attainment among adults 25-years or older, school enrollment for people at least three years old and median annual gross personal earnings.
Among the findings: "New Jersey Asian Americans live, on average, an astonishing 26 years longer, are 11 times more likely to have a graduate degree, and earn $35,610 more per year than South Dakota Native Americans," according to the report released Wednesday by Kristen Lewis and Sarah Burd-Sharps of the American Human Development Project an arm of the Social Science Research Council. South Dakota Native Americans scored on the lowest on the index and lag about half a century behind the rest of the nation in terms of human development, according to the report.Asian Americans also apparently live the longest -- 86.6 years. While these findings are kind of interesting, this is definitely one of those instances where I'd like to see the data disaggregated by ethnic group, to get a more accurate picture of these disparities. This is definitely case where lumping all Asians together isn't necessarily helpful.
Across the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Asian Americans were worst off in Louisiana. Their New Jersey counterparts lived an average of nine years longer and earned more than twice that of Asian Americans in Louisiana. Meanwhile, Native Americans were better off in California than in any other state.
That said, what are they putting in the soy sauce in New Jersey?