Baton Rouge is Louisiana’s best place to live and its worst, a new report says.
A coalition of groups analyzed 2007 data on health, education and earnings to form a quality of life index. The “best” rating for Baton Rouge cited a suburban swath of southern East Baton Rouge Parish combined with West Baton Rouge Parish. The “worst” rating came for sections of downtown and north Baton Rouge. The report, spearheaded by Oxfam America, the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation and other groups, said someone in the first area “can expect to live, on average, nearly half a decade longer, earns twice as much, is almost three times more likely to have a bachelor’s degree, and is three times less likely to have dropped out of high school” than someone living in the other section.
The report adapting a United Nations formula to create the 10-point “human development index.” Louisiana’s overall score of 3.92 put it above only West Virginia and Mississippi among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the report said. The group’s national report, using 2005 statistics, put Connecticut first at 6.37, followed by Massachusetts at 6.27.
The area of Baton Rouge scoring lowest in Louisiana — 2.51 on the index — is 88% black. The top-rated area, which spans parts of East and West Baton Rouge parishes and scored 5.73, is 70% white. Other sections of East Baton Rouge — one including Zachary, Baker and unincorporated parts of the city, and one including parts of downtown and LSU– also are in Louisiana’s top 10, with scores of 4.47 and 5.12 respectively. Read the full report here.
