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From
Smarts to Smokers
How
the Old Dominion Rates
Recently,
an Education
Week study ranked Virginia number one among
U.S. states on its “Chance-for- Success Index.”
The index uses various indicators such as preschool
and kindergarten enrollment, parental employment and
high school graduation to predict a youngster’s
success from cradle to career. It’s great to be
number one, but it also got us wondering how the
commonwealth fares in other categories.
Let’s
start with simple stats and demographics. While many
of us can name the largest and smallest states –
Alaska and Rhode Island – few can place Virginia
in the lineup. At 39,598 square miles, the Old
Dominion ranks 37th
in land size. It’s slightly smaller than
Kentucky and a bit larger than Indiana.
Despite
its smaller acreage, Virginia is actually 12th
in population size with a bit more than 7
million people. Just for comparison, California has
the most residents and Wyoming the least among the
U.S. states.
Morgan
Quitno, the academic press that publishes
rankings reference books, such as State Rankings,
has included Virginia among its “Smartest State”
and “Most Livable State” listings. Using twenty-one
factors, such as the percent of fourth and
eighth graders proficient in reading, writing and
math; the median pupil-teacher ratio; and high
school drop-out rate, the publisher rates the
commonwealth as the eighth “smartest state” in
the country. Vermont ranks first and Arizona comes
in at the bottom of the list.
Virginia
also ranks eighth on Morgan Quitno’s "livability
index," which includes such indicators as
per capita personal income; job growth; percent of
population not covered by health insurance; books in
public libraries per capita; and percent of days
that are sunny. New Hampshire tops the list,
followed by Minnesota. Mississippi and Louisiana –
still recovering from Hurricane Katrina – fall at
the end of the rankings.
The
commonwealth may have bright residents and be a
great place to live, but according to a first-ever
“top places for business” survey by Forbes, it
is also a great location for business (“Virginia:
The Best State for Business,” August 16, 2006).
The magazine rated states in six categories:
business costs; economic climate; growth prospects;
labor; quality of life; and regulatory environment.
Only Virginia ranked among the top ten states in all
six designations. For example, tax and energy costs
for Virginia businesses are the seventh and ninth
lowest in the country. Worker compensation costs are
the fourth lowest in the U.S.
The
state’s political climate is business friendly, as
well. Virginia ranked second behind South Carolina
in state economic incentive programs.
As
to health, a 2002 report found that Virginia ranked
seventh in the percentage of births to smokers.
Twelve years earlier, the percentage of Virginia
infants born to mothers who smoked was almost double
(“Virginia Newborns Given a Better Bill of Health:
Study: Smoking Down During Pregnancy,” The Washington
Post, February 7, 2002).
Another
health indicator for Virginia’s children is the
percent of low-birth-weight births. According to the
Annie
E. Casey Foundation, Virginia ranks 30th with
8.2 percent of births below 5.5 pounds based on 2003
statistics. Alaska and Washington actually have the
least percentage of low-weight births and
Mississippi has the highest.
Here
are some other miscellaneous rankings:
The
Citizens Against Government Waste "Pig
Book" ranked Virginia 32th in the pork per
capita spent by the state in 2006. Compared to a
national average of $30.55 per person, only $26.19
is spent per resident in the commonwealth. Alaska
comes out on top with $489.87 spent per person and
Georgia ranks last with only $12.06 per resident.
Luckily, Virginia’s legislators didn’t receive
any of the organization’s Oinker Awards, which
went to projects such as funding for the World
Toilet Summit, a teapot museum, and a boxing club.
The
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids ranks Virginia
22nd in state funding for tobacco prevention. It
monitors how states are using their portion of the
1998 settlement funds with tobacco companies to
fighttobacco use. Maine tops the list and Illinois
ranks last in its anti-smoking efforts.
Overall,
the commonwealth seems to come out fairly well. The
Renaissance poet Michael
Drayton (1563 – 1631) called the Old Dominion,
“earth’s only paradise.” We are among the top
producers of apples – number six to be exact –
but Drayton may have exaggerated just a little.
NEXT:
Connecting With the Earth: Organic Farms in Virginia
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March 21, 2007
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