Programs

American Human Development Project

Tracking how America is doing from the perspective of human development

Sarah Burd-Sharps and Kristen Lewis present the American Human Development Report at the New School in late October, 2008.

Sarah Burd-Sharps and Kristen Lewis present the findings of the first-ever report on how Americans are doing with human development (New School, October 2008).

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The American Human Development Project is a non-partisan initiative to stimulate fact-based public debate about issues of well being in the United States. Our approach and index are modeled on the United Nations Human Development Reports and include components Americans care deeply about: health, education, and income. We issued our first report, entitled The Measure of America, in July 2008, as both a book and as a Web site with interactive tools enabling non-specialists to explore trends, manipulate data, and create well-being maps for where they live. The report's publication marked the first time human development rankings had been compiled for the United States--and for any developed nation. Since then, the team has produced additional guides and a state report (for lowest-ranked Mississippi). The next report is due out in 2010-2011.