According to a new statistical analysis by a bipartisan economic think tank, more than 30 million Americans live in local communities in a state of economic distress.
The Washington-based Economic Innovation Group, and EIG, this week released its Distressed Communities Index, which uses seven metrics to consider the economic health of the nation’s more than 25,000 zip codes. Communities were evaluated based on their number of high school graduates, housing vacancy rate, unemployment rate, percentage of persons living below the poverty line, the ratio of their zip code’s median income to that of their state, the change in employment percentage and the percent change in business establishes.
