A new report from the nonpartisan State of the Nation Project lists New Mexico near the bottom of national rankings for education, shootings, youth depression and a number of other factors that impact life satisfaction. However, researchers found that even states with higher scores are reporting similar declines.
The organization produced the State of the States report, which gives in-depth scorecards to each of the 50 states and Washington D.C., ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary. A board of academics and advisers to the last five presidents created a list of 31 measures — ranging from youth depression, air quality and income inequality to social isolation, life expectancy and young adults employed or in school — and quantified those categories in each state.
Among the team’s takeaways: Only a small handful of states show improvement on any measure of self-reported well-being; states are becoming more alike in many ways but diverging on issues that can drive feelings of division; and a stronger economy does not appear to be linked to higher scores of personal well-being.
For total scores across the project’s categories, only Louisiana fared worse than New Mexico.
In particular, New Mexico ranked 50th in the nation for hourly earnings growth; 49th for murder rate and academic test scores; 48th for children living with a single parent; 47th for shootings and suicide rate; 45th for youth depression and 44th for young adults employed or in school.
Its highest score — for child mortality — was 20th in the nation.
State leaders have recently focused on the exceedingly high number of young New Mexicans who neither work or go to school. A recent Legislative Finance Committee report found that 32,000 young New Mexicans do neither, costing the state some $623 million annually.
“Almost all states are going downhill, or at least not improving, in the areas in the nation where the nation is going downhill,” Douglas N. Harris, a Tulane University professor leading the State of the Nation Project’s effort, told Source NM. “What’s different about New Mexico is that its levels are worse — you’re starting off at a low point, but also getting worse.”
The new report indicates that states across the nation are broadly declining in these categories, regardless of their starting point. Minnesota, for example, ranked first in the nation and is showing some of the strongest improvements for economic output and productivity. But even some of its scores — 43rd for youth depression and 38th for net greenhouse gas emissions — are troubling.
“States with higher income per-capita do not have higher personal well-being and life satisfaction or lower depression,” Harris said. “I think part of it is that we’re a nation of strivers. We’re never satisfied with what we have and if you’re never satisfied, then you’re never going to give positive responses on life satisfaction.”
Harris said the team’s next project will be a series of reports examining why scores are declining across the nation.
In general, he said he suspects that social media and smartphones have a role to play in answering those questions, particularly because of how easy it is to engage with polarizing content.
He said he believes that is reflected in a troubling finding: low levels of trust in democracy across the nation.
“That one is probably the most astounding to me,” he said. “The vast majority of countries have a stronger belief in democracy than the U.S. That’s just appalling and worrisome.”
