Food insecurity has profound negative impacts on the well-being and success of individuals, families and communities. It is one way to represent households at social and economic risk.
Because there are no direct measures of food insecurity available at the county level, researchers for Feeding America develop an estimate using a mathematical model that combines food security data from the Current Population Survey with other household demographic and economic information.
Food-secure households have consistent access to safe and nutritional foods without needing to resort to emergency food sources, scavenging, stealing or other coping strategies.
Property tax serves as an important source of revenue for local governments. Per-capita property tax is an indicator of the capacity of local government to provide services such as public safety, roads and other infrastructure, parks/recreation, and public health.
It is also a measure of relative tax burden. Property tax imposed excludes taxes allocated to urban renewal agencies and special assessments.
Housing cost burden provides a measure of a county’s affordability. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has established the “30 percent rule,” meaning that households should spend no more than 30 percent of their income on housing.
Some criticize the rule for being oversimplified. For example, it does not take into account income level. Still, housing cost burden provides a measure of the number of households that may be at risk of eviction, foreclosure, and/or homelessness.
This measure is a key success indicator for affordable housing efforts. Those facing housing cost burden also may face challenges spending money in other domains, including food, transportation, health or education.
Child poverty is a key predictor of negative social outcomes and increased demand for government services. Poverty can limit a child’s social, educational and personal development due to reduced access to opportunities.
Children experiencing poverty are less likely to be successful in school, are more likely to have negative health outcomes, have greater difficulty accessing the job market later in life, and are more likely to commit crimes, resulting in a greater demand for services overall. High rates of child poverty can limit community progress.
Child abuse is a serious problem in our country. Among industrialized nations, the United States has one of the highest rates of child death by abuse. Child abuse negatively affects the wellbeing of young people in our communities now and in the long run.
Experiencing abuse as a child contributes to poor physical and mental health well into adulthood. The compounding costs of medical care, lost productivity, child welfare services, criminal justice and specialized education services all place an additional burden on counties — above and beyond the human suffering associated with child abuse. Community economic stress can contribute to rates of child abuse, creating a vicious cycle.
Crime rates are a measure of the relative safety of an area, but crime also has important social and economic influences on communities. High rates of crime are associated with population mobility, weaker attachment of residents to their community, less local involvement and lower home values.
The index crime rate is created to provide a standard measure of particularly important crimes against people and property across the United States. Tracking crime supports law enforcement operations, public safety budgeting and local community development efforts.
Voter participation has long served as a secondary measure of social capital. The relationship between voting and social connections has been heavily researched with little consensus. In the absence of an alternative measure, voter participation continues as an important proxy for civic engagement and community social capital.
This in turn reflects community capacity. The state of Oregon has implemented multiple policies over the years to increase voter participation, such as mail-in ballots and automatic voter registration. The state reports some of the highest voter participation rates in the country