Martin Luther King Jr. Day is fast approaching and according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, 58 percent of Americans think race relations are “generally bad,” and 53 percent think they are getting worse. While there is definitely room for improvement, progress has been made.
The personal finance website WalletHub released its report on 2020’s States with the Most Racial Progress. Analyst Jill Gonzalez tells us Georgia came in the top 5 overall.
“We’re looking at racial progress here, essentially how far Georgia has come in the last couple of decades in terms of employment and wealth, education, civic engagement,” according to Gonzalez. “Georgia has come a long way, it ranked 4th best in terms of states with the most racial progress.”
Analysts studied the 50 states and Washington D.C. They say the Peach State did well in several areas.
“As far as where Georgia did well, it did the best in terms of closing the gaps in terms of employment and wealth so thing like unemployment rates have gotten smaller, the wealth gap has gotten smaller, poverty rates all of those gaps have gotten smaller. It also did very well in terms of civic engagement particularly voter turnout.”
She says Georgia needs improvement when it comes to education and health levels, including insurance coverage, high school dropout rates and adults with bachelor’s degrees.”
Wyoming came in at number on the list, followed by Texas, Mississippi and new Jersey at number five. Iowa was dead last on the list at number 51.
Factors considered included medial annual income, standardized test scores, homeownership and infant mortality rates.
To view entire list, visit WalletHub.com.
