Have you ever heard of the Human Development Index? In simple terms, it measures people’s well being, based on how long you live and how healthy you are, access to education, and your standard of living. It was developed by economists who felt that GDP was an insufficient way of measuring human happiness and was first published in 1990.

There is a state by state breakdown for the entire USA, and guess what? New Jersey ranks third! Ok, so Massachusetts and Connecticut rank ahead of us, but third is still awfully good. One of the ways for life and health is the infant mortality rate, access to education is measured by school enrollment at 3 and older and higher education attainment of 25, and standard of living is calculated based on the median income of all part time and full time workers. So, when it comes to living, learning, and earning, we in New Jersey are among the best in the US!

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