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Posted: Tuesday, 10 March 2009 7:47PM
Illinois Ranks 13th In Nation's Well-Being
Bob Roberts Reporting
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CHICAGO (WBBM) -- Illinois ranked 13th overall in a nationwide USA Today-Gallup poll assessing the nation's well-being.
But not all is roses in the highest-rated areas, and there are glimmers of light even in some of the worst-off areas.
The poll nationwide found that the aspirations that have defined the American experience -- that those who work hard and play by the rules can get ahead, and that the next generation will have a better life than this one -- have been battered by the recession.
Gallup began its surveys in January 2008 and has surveyed about 1,000 people daily except major holidays. The surveys showed a major swing in the nation's mood over the past 14 months.
In that time, the nation's mood has gone from one in which slightly more people thought of themselves as "thriving" rather than "struggling," to one in which the strugglers outnumbered the those still thriving 58 percent to 38 percent.
In Illinois, not surprisingly, the 10th Congressional District, which encompasses most of Chicago's North Shore suburbs, ranked highest, with the 9th District, directly to the south, on its heels. At the bottom of the list were the three districts representing most of the South Side and south suburbs -- the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts.
The 1st District ranked 400th out of 435 districts nationwide.
Indiana's 1st Congressional District, which encompasses the northwest corner of the Hoosier state, ranked with Illinois' bottom three.
Gallup measured the nation's mood in six areas -- physical health, work quality, healthy behavior, emotional health, life evaluation and basic access.
Not surprisingly, the 9th District ranked tops in Illinois in terms of overall physical health and healthy behavior. The 7th District, which ranked 5th overall, had the highest ratings in the categories of emotional health and "life evaluation." In the category of "work quality," the west suburban 6th District rated the highest. Only in the category "basic access" did the 10th District top the list among Illinois districts.
Perhaps a better picture of the fragile state of the Illinois economy comes in the measurements of emotional health and work quality. Only the 7th and 9th District ranked in the top 100 nationally in terms of emotional health, while only Illinois' 6th District ranked in the top 100 among work quality.
In fact, the 10th District, which ranked 24th overall nationally, reported 236th in terms of work quality. The 9th District, which ranked second in the state and 42nd nationwide, was only slightly better in the "work quality" index at 210th, while the 13th District, which ranked third in the state and 53rd overall, was ranked 336th out of 435 districts in terms of work quality and 299th in its measurement of healthy behavior.
The 7th Congressional District ranked 5th in the state and 81st overall nationally, but ranked 260th in the work quality measurement and 329th in the survey's measurement of healthy behavior.
Gallup said the indices categorize respondents based on how they rate their current lives as well as their expectations of where they will be in five years.
The 3rd District did well in one area -- physical health, 144th nationally, which was good enough for eighth out of Illinois' 19 congressional districts.
Aside from the Chicago-area districts at the very bottom, the rest of the lower half were made up of largely downstate districts.
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