MUNCIE — When it comes to health, education and standard of living, the four-county area ranks in about the middle among the 92 counties in the state.
Although the U.S. ranks fifth overall among all nations in the world based on the Human Development Index, inside the country Indiana is 39th out of 50 states. That means there is room from improvement in the Hoosier State, researchers at Ball State University’s Center for Business and Economic Research said.
A new study released by a team of Ball State researchers gauges all of Indiana’s counties on the Human Development Index. The researchers scored counties based on data about life expectancy; education enrollment and attainment; and per-capita income and average monthly earnings. County scores are then compared to each other on a zero-to-100 scale.
DeKalb County scored the highest at 66.26, just sneaking into the top third of Indiana counties. Steuben and Noble counties were about in the middle, with scores of 56.37 and 50.08, respectively.
LaGrange County scored the worst of all counties in the state, receiving dead-last scores of zero for education, living standards and Human Development Index, although the study notes that the county’s large Amish population heavily skews the ranking. The report references another, separate report tailored for counties with large Amish communities.
Statewide, the report suggests that Indiana’s current development policies haven’t created the kind of growth needed to stay at the front of the pack among states. Only about a dozen Indiana counties have populations growing faster than the U.S. rate, and about 30 counties are facing long-term population decline.
“Current economic development policies, many of which date from the 1960s, have failed to generate significant population and income growth in most Indiana counties. A focus on human capital and quality of place should replace existing economic development efforts at the county and municipal levels,” the report states.
The study shows a significant divide in Human Development Index rankings among metropolitan and rural areas. Urban areas score about 14.5 points higher than rural counties, according to the results.
The top five counties include affluent suburban areas such as Hamilton County (Carmel, Noblesville, Fishers), Boone County (Zionsville) and Porter County (Valparaiso, Portage), as well as Monroe and Tippecanoe counties, the homes of Indiana University and Purdue University.
The bottom five counties — LaGrange, Scott, Switzerland, Starke and Crawford — are all “extremely rural,” according to the study.
“There is a clear benefit to urban locations and the presence of universities for a variety of factors related to health, education and income,” said co-author Srikant Devaraj, CBER research economist and research assistant professor. “This is apparent in the individual and the aggregate HDI rankings.”
The authors suggest the state needs to focus on improving K-12 education, especially among the bottom 25 percent of lowest-performing schools; developing quality of place, which will help attract skilled workers to communities; developing local infrastructure; and pursuing regional development.
Communities need to wrap their heads around a new idea about development: that businesses aren’t necessarily going to go to communities that offer the best incentives, but instead will find communities that have the best people, CBER director and professor Michael Hicks said.
Large cities like Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, and some smaller cities such as Kokomo and Columbus, are ahead of the game by investing in new projects focused on making their communities attractive for people, Hicks said.
“For about four decades, Indiana has largely focused on attracting business investment and pursued policies that attracted business investment, with far less consideration on the role human capital plays. While business investment is important, the best evidence we have seen (and research we have performed) suggests that businesses are now following people, and that attracting and retaining a high quality workforce is the real key to economic success,” Hicks said.