Static overview: component values and sources
Health & care · 2024
Four annual measures of longevity, mortality and access. NHIS method/design changes limit comparisons across some years; the visual trace stays continuous. Overlapping health outcomes can double-count underlying change.
Work & income · 2024
Four measures of work and real pay. Prime-age employment uses an explicitly favorable employment lens; participation and nominal pay remain in detail. Partial 2025 price/labor inputs stop this fixed basket in 2024.
Household finances · 2024
Five debt and housing-burden measures. Complete common coverage starts in 2005. No 2020 housing observations: no 2020 aggregate; a continuous visual guide connects 2019 to 2021.
Food & essentials · 2024
Five work-minute affordability measures plus food insecurity. Gross mean wages are a comparator, not take-home pay. Shared wage inputs and related prices can double-count movement. Incomplete 2025 price inputs stop the group in 2024.
National finances · 2025
Descriptive context average of debt held by the public/GDP and net interest/receipts, both fiscal-year ratios. Higher means larger ratios, not better or worse national wellbeing. Spending, currencies, gaming and sports remain in the drilldown.
Learning · 2025
Three PISA subjects, equally weighted only in cycles with all three. The common basket begins in 2009; there are no invented annual scores. US 2022/2025 sampling cautions remain. Scores are not global ranks.
- PISA reading: 490 PISA score points, age 15 (2025). OECD
- PISA mathematics: 463 PISA score points, age 15 (2025). OECD
- PISA science: 502 PISA score points, age 15 (2025). OECD
Safety & justice · 2024
Three long annual series: traffic deaths per mile, homicide death rate and recorded school gun incidents. School incidents use a broad database definition, not mass shootings. Other justice, responder and aviation evidence remains in detail.
People & family · 2025
Descriptive context average of population and two age shares. Higher is not a wellbeing judgment; age shares are related and can cancel. Census vintage boundaries limit comparability; the visual trace stays continuous. Fertility retains its target only in detail.