Census tool spotlights link between childhood neighborhood and adult financial wellbeing

A new tool produced by the U.S. Census Bureau  confirms what people have long suspected: that where you grow up makes a difference in your ability to climb the economic ladder (Source: “‘Opportunity Atlas’ shows how neighborhoods play role in whether kids get ahead,” Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 3, 2018)

The Opportunity Atlas shows the outcome of children who were born between 1978 and 1983 and are now adults, estimating factors such as earnings, incarceration rates, high-school and college graduation rates, whether they stayed in the same city, and how many were married in 2015. The factors are estimated by race, gender and parental income per census tract. The statistics cover 20 million children, almost 94 percent of all children born in the United States during that period.

Researchers estimate that of the modifiable factors that impact overall health, 20 percent are attributed to clinical care (e.g., healthcare access and quality) and 30 percent to health-related behaviors. The remaining 50 percent are attributed to social determinants of health, the types of community conditions measured in the Opportunity Atlas, such as housing, transportation, education and employment.