Human Capacity: Summary and Implications
We've measured Human Capacity in five areas — child welfare, health, educational attainment, unemployment, and migration and immigration. Each chart or graph on these pages was assigned a rating based on how the Kansas City region compared to its peers or, in the case of indicators only available for the Kansas City area, on how favorably they reflected on the region. The ratings are shown in the chart below:
Average Rating: 1.65
While the Kansas City area's children are doing passably well, adults are not as healthy as they could be. Their obesity rates put the region in the second, heavier tier among the region's peers and they have higher death rates from cardiovascular causes. Both of these are characteristics that align with the region's relative dependence on the automobile.
More important, perhaps, for competitiveness is that the region's overall rate of college education lags the leaders by a significant amount, also putting the region in a second tier of achievement, as does its relative proportion of residents engaged in science and engineering occupations.
Together, these limit the region's capacity to generate and employ the innovations needed to succeed in the global economy and, as shown in the report to CEOs for cities, reduces the growth in area residents' standard of living.
The educational disparities between black and white are particularly troublesome because it means the region is not fully deploying the talent it has available. Here again the region is in the bottom half among its peers. The story is even worse when it comes to unemployment disparities by race.
On the other hand, during the latter part of the 1990s, the region was able to attract more young, single, educated workers than it lost, enough to put it in the top half of its peers. This speaks well for the future success of the economy.
Still, the region probably does not attract enough talented immigrants and loses too many retirees whose material and experiential wealth could otherwise be put to good use here.
What can we do to improve as a region? Read our policy recommendations, and let us know what you think.
Next set of indicators: Economic Competitiveness
"Human Capacity" main page | Indicators
main page