Core Data Sources:

“Reading grade 4.” National Assessment of Educational Progress. National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences. Excel file downloaded: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/districts/

Note: Metropolitan Statistical Areas were matched with nearest school district, where the data was available.

“Crime in the United States by Metropolitan Statistical Area, 2010.” Uniform Crime Reports. Table 6. U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Excel file downloaded: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/table-6

“GDP by Metropolitan Area, Advance 2010, and Revised 2007–2009.” U.S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Excel file downloaded: http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/gdp_metro/gdp_metro_newsrelease.htm

“2010 County Health Rankings: Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health.” A collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Excel file downloaded: http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/rankings/ranking-methods/download-rankings-data

Note: Metropolitan Statistical Areas were matched with average of overlapping counties.

“2010 Civic Health Assessment Data, including 2010 Civic Engagement Data and 2008-2010 Volunteering Data” Derived from Current Population Survey. Supplements on Voting, Volunteering and Civic Engagement. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. Excel file downloaded: http://www.civicdatachallenge.org/page/data/civic-health-data

Other Works Referenced:

Block, Peter, and John McKnight. ‘The Limits of Consumption’. Internet Newspaper. Huffpost Healthy Living, January 6, 2011. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-block/the-limits-of-consumption_b_805506.html.

Karabell, Zachard. ‘Is the GDP Report Really Important?’ The Daily Beast, July 27, 2012, sec. Business. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/27/is-the-gdp-report-really-important.html.

Meadows, Donella H. Thinking in Systems: A Primer. Edited by Diana Wright. White River Junction: Sustainability Institute, 2008.

Shays, Christopher. ‘Shays: It’s Economic Growth, Stupid!’ Danbury News Times. Danbury, CT, July 28, 2012, sec. Opinion. http://www.newstimes.com/opinion/article/Shays-It-s-economic-growth-stupid-3743280.php.

With Voters Focused on Economy, Obama Lead Narrows: Social Issues Rank as Lowest Priorites. The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, April 17, 2012. http://www.people-press.org/2012/04/17/with-voters-focused-on-economy-obama-lead-narrows/.

Important Note: the data analysis looks at the correlative power of GDP versus “Civic engagement” for a number of key indicators. Different variables contained within the Civic Health Assessments are used as proxies for “Civic engagement” (e.g., the volunteer rate, the % working with neighbors and volunteers and the % eating dinner with household members basically every day are used across the five visualizations). None of these measures stood out as being stronger than GDP across the full set of analyses performed. The premise, though, still holds that GDP is an imperfect measure of our health, happiness and well-being.