Our Work

Building Bright Futures in Greater Houston

Broad Recovery, Persistent Inequity: Youth Disconnection in America

Broad Recovery, Persistent Inequity presents 2022 youth disconnection rates for the United States as a whole as well as by gender, race and ethnicity, region, state, metro area, and congressional district.

A Portrait of Newark

A Portrait of Newark is an extensive study of well-being across race, place, and gender, and youth disconnection across Newark, New Jersey.

Ensuring an Equitable Recovery: Addressing Covid-19’s Impact on Education

Ensuring an Equitable Recovery presents 2021 youth disconnection rates for the United States as a whole as well as by gender, race and ethnicity, region, state, metro area, and congressional district.

A Portrait of the Valley

A Portrait of the Valley is an extensive study of well-being across race, place, and gender across the San Joaquin Valley.

Building Bright Futures for Youth in New Orleans

Building Bright Futures for Youth in New Orleans: Spotlight on Young Women provides an in-depth look at youth disconnection in Greater New Orleans (the New Orleans metropolitan area). The report also has a special focus on young women.

Making the Connection

This report presents the latest available data on youth disconnection for the United States as a whole as well as by gender, race and ethnicity, region, state, and metro area. It also examines a key factor preventing young people from staying in school and the workforce: disparities in access to reliable and affordable transportation.

Measuring America: 10 Years and Counting

“Measuring America: 10 Years and Counting” explores trends in American Human Development Index scores over the past decade by race and ethnicity, gender, and U.S. state, revealing the uneven nature of America’s rebound from the 2007 financial crisis.

Two Futures: The Economic Case for Keeping Youth on Track

Building on Measure of America’s Disconnected Youth Series, Two Futures: The Economic Case for Keeping Youth on Track finds that by the time they reach their thirties, those who had been working or in school as teens and young adults earn $31,000 more per year.

A Portrait of New York City 2018

A Portrait of New York City 2018: Well-Being in the Five Boroughs and the Greater Metro Area examines well-being and access to opportunity for different geographies and demographic groups in New York City and the greater New York–New Jersey–Connecticut metropolitan area using the human development framework and index.

More Than a Million Reasons for Hope

This report analyzes youth disconnection in the United States by state, metro area, county, and community type, and by gender, race, and ethnicity. It is the first in Measure of America’s disconnected youth series to compare American and European metro areas or to examine disconnection by group characteristics.

Highway to Health

Highway to Health: Life Expectancy in Los Angeles County reveals up-to-date life expectancy calculations for cities and unincorporated areas within Los Angeles County, the first release of such data in more than a decade.

Promising Gains, Persistent Gaps

Since Measure of America first wrote about youth disconnection half a decade ago, public awareness of both the plight and the promise of young people who are not in either school or the workforce has grown by leaps and bounds. This report takes a look at the disconnected youth population, what particular challenges they face, and what strategies have been shown to work.

Retail and Opportunity

Past research on workers in the retail sector showed that individuals face many obstacles on the path to economic success. This research investigated how retail employment relates to broader community conditions and individual-level characteristics with the aim to answer three questions.

High School Graduation in New York City

High School Graduation in New York City: Is Neighborhood Still Destiny? is an in-depth look at disparities in on-time high school graduation rates by New York City neighborhood.

Zeroing In on Place and Race

Zeroing In on Place and Race is an in-depth look at how disconnected youth are faring in America's cities, with data included on disconnected youth by state, congressional district, county, gender, and by race and ethnicity.

HALVE THE GAP BY 2030: Youth Disconnection in America’s Cities

In this report we imagine, in very specific terms, a different, better tomorrow. We lay out an ambitious but attainable goal: to halve the gaps between the most- and least-connected neighborhoods and between racial groups in half by 2030.

One in Seven

An astonishing one in every seven Americans ages 16 to 24 is neither working nor in school—5.8 million young people in all. This brief ranks the country’s 25 largest metropolitan areas as well as the nation’s largest racial and ethnic groups in terms of youth disconnection.

Women’s Well-Being: Ranking America’s Top 25 Metro Areas

This analysis shows that the well-being of women living in metropolitan America varies tremendously by place as well as by race, ethnicity, age, and martial status.