2015 American Dream States
21 May, 2015
Is your state an American Dream State?
Each year, with the help of Xavier University, the Burghard Group publishes the list of American Dream states. These are the states where residents feel they are achieving at least 5 percent more of the American Dream than national average. Very few states achieve the status of an American Dream state.
The Report is free.
The top five states were people say they are living the American Dream are: Delaware, Vermont, New Mexico, South Carolina and Alaska.
The ADCI or the American Dream Composite Index powered by dunnhumby is a measure of the level of satisfaction with all the dimensions of the American Dream among people living in the United States. The ADCI represents the first measurement that quantifies the American Dream in its entirety. A comprehensive and robust measure, the ADCI gauges our nation’s well-being as a function of the multifaceted American Dream. The ADCI takes into account all aspects of life in its calculation. The ADCI measures true aspiration of the people living in the United States and is based on a monthly survey of 1,000 people living in the United States. The results of the survey respondents are used to calculate the ADCI, and the five sub-indices (Economic, Well-Being, Societal, Diversity, and Environment).
A Gold Standard Performance Measure
The Burghard Group advocates that the ADCI is an excellent performance measure to evaluate the authenticity of Brand America’s promise and should be used by economic development professionals and elected officials as the “gold standard” metric to assess the ability of their communities to enable residents to achieve their American Dream.
In today’s economic development world the focus is on jobs and gross state product growth. But, the ADCI study clearly indicates that while these two measures are necessary, they are not sufficient to understand if residents are making progress in achieving their American Dream. And, because the opportunity to achieve the American Dream is what our nation promises its residents, it should be the measure by which we ultimately determine success or failure.
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Illustration by Kenneth Cratty at Free Digital Photos.net.
