Study: 2nd district has good overall well-being -- for Texas, at least

Residents of Texas’s 2^nd congressional district enjoy better average overall well-being than most people in the state but fall behind the national average, according to a recent study. 

The 2^nd district, which includes several northern suburbs of Houston, scored a 5.00 on the “human development index” designed by the American Human Development Project of the Social Science Research Council. The index is a composite score based on factors such as health, education, and median income in each district.

Texas’s average human development score was 4.67. The average score for the Houston metro area was slightly higher at 5.02, though this was still behind the average score for the United States as a whole, 5.17.

As it turns out, the highest and lowest scores for Texas both came from the Houston area. The 7^th district in the western part of the metro area rated 6.69; the 29^th district on the east side only scored 3.23.

The highest-ranked area in the country was New York’s 14^th district, which includes the East Side of Manhattan. It received a score of 8.79. The lowest district nationwide was California’s 20^th. That district, which encompasses Fresno and Kern, scored 2.60.

To find out more about how the American Human Development Project and how the scores were calculated, visit http://www.measureofamerica.org.