A Grand Illusion

We’ve had a data filled day here at AGI, and I’m about to continue it.

Gallup, Healthways, and America’s Health Insurance Plans put together this online application that ranks Congressional districts depending on a number of social and economic indexes. One of the more interesting indexes is the well-being index.

The research and methodology underlying the Well-Being Index is based on the World Health Organization definition of health as “not only the absence of infirmity and disease, but also a state of physical, mental, and social well-being.”

But you can also rank districts by college graduation rates, poverty, and a lot of other measuring sticks. It’s also fun to crossreference data sets. You’ll find, for example, that the more college graduates there are in a Congressional district, the higher almost every other index is. Whaaaaaaaa? Imagine that.

When we look at South Florida we find that the well-being index is highest in Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s district–which includes Coral Gables, Downtown Miami, Brickell, Key Biscayne, The Keys–and lowest is Kendrick Meek’s, with Mario Diaz-Balart’s district a close second. How do they stack up nationally? Not good. Meek’s ranks at 415, out of 435; Mario Diaz-Balart’s ranks at 373; Lincoln Diaz Balart’s is at 303; and Ros-Lehtinen’s at 125.

Via Riptide.

I can’t find the words to describe this video. Except to say that if you liked “An Inconvenient Truth”, you’re going to love this presentation. You’ve never seen data presented like this, nor will you think about the way countries interact with each other in the same way.