Three organizations – Brown University, Internews (a California-based nonprofit that supports independent media), and Press Forward (a grant-making organization that supports local news media) – have joined together to devise a measurement tool called the Civic Information Index. Using 21 data points, the Index gives every county and independent city in the U.S. a “civic health” score.
The Index – Civic Information Index
The numerous data sets used to determine the scores include such items as the percentage of households with access to broadband, number of library visits, access to health care, voter turn-out, charitable giving, life expectancy, poverty rate, and the number of news outlets in each county.
You can zoom in on any county for the score.
Here are the scores for Nelson on a scale of 0 – 100.
Overall Index percentile: 68
News and Information percentile: 46
Civic Participation percentile: 58
Equity and Justice percentile: 90
Health and Opportunity percentile: 75
