Minnesota Ranks 2nd in New Measure of Opportunity
•Duluth, MN (Northland’s NewsCenter) — A new index ranks Minnesota 2nd in the nation in providing opportunities to move up the economic ladder.
Opportunity Nation’s new Opportunity Index ranked all 50 states based on unemployment rate, poverty rate, on-time graduation rate, and others indicators with Minnesota coming in 2nd place.
Minnesota earned a score of 81.2 out of 100. What helped Minnesota to stand out was how the state weathered the economic downturn with higher than average incomes and low unemployment rates, high graduation rates (87%) and keeping children in school (only 4.7% of MN teens are not in school and are not working).
Nationally, the index found that the biggest indicator of low opportunity to climb the economic ladder is when there’s a high percentage of teens not going to school and not working.
The Opportunity Index uses data from multiple sources including U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the National Center for Education Statistics, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and other official sources.
Opportunity Nation is a broad-based, cross-partisan coalition of nearly 200 public, private, non-profit, civilian and military organizations.
Complete metrics and scores can be found at www.opportunityindex.org.
