Sunday, July 28, 2024

Pockets of concern: Most at risk youth in the US

ByDr. Tim Sandle
July 26, 2024
DIGITAL JOURNAL

UK government figures show an increase in homeschooling in England
— © ANP/AFP Remko de Waal

With 13 percent of young people in the U.S. neither working nor in school, the personal-finance website WalletHub has been assessing the impact across the nation.

The company has released a report on the States with the Most At-Risk Youth in 2024,to identify the places where more effort is needed to help young adults succeed.

For the data review, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 15 key indicators of youth risk. These data sets range from metrics like the share of disconnected youth to the labour force participation rate among young adults to the overall youth poverty rate.

The outcome reveals the following top ten states with the most at risk youth:

1. Louisiana

2. New Mexico

3. West Virginia

4. Alaska

5. Arkansas

6. Oklahoma

7. Mississippi

8. Montana

9. Wyoming

10. Oregon

Whereas, at the other end of the scale, states with the lowest proportion of at risk youth are:
42. Massachusetts
43. Maryland
44. Hawaii
45. Utah
46. Connecticut
47. Virginia
48. Iowa
49. Illinois
50. New Hampshire
51. New Jersey


Behind these rankings are some interesting variances.

Louisiana has the highest share of disconnected youth, which is 3.4 times higher than in the District of Columbia, the lowest. On another measure, New Mexico has the highest share of youth without a high school diploma, which is 2.1 times higher than in Hawaii, the lowest.

In terms of health, weight is an important measure. With this, West Virginia has the highest share of overweight or obese youth, which is 1.6 times higher than in New Hampshire, the lowest.


Another key metric is with drug abuse. On this level, Vermont has the highest share of youth using drugs in the past month, which is 2.1 times higher than in Alabama, the lowest.

On the subject of being homeless, the data shows that the District of Columbia has the highest share of homeless youth, which is 60 times higher than in the state of Mississippi, the lowest.

No comments:

Post a Comment