The Utah Foundation’s Social Capital Index project is a series of reports that measure whether Utah is thriving in terms of its “social capital.” Put simply, social capital refers to the ways in which individuals can leverage connections between people and social networks for the benefit of themselves or their community.
One of the seven categories of the project is the focus on future generations. The key finding from that report is:
Most Mountain States have seen a rapid decrease in their focus on future generations since 2013. Utah is no different.
That said, Utah performs relatively well, though the gap between it and the nation is shrinking.
This installment in the Utah Foundation’s Social Capital Index project uses four indicators to compare states in terms of the focus on future generations:
- Parks and recreation funding effort – Utah is the third highest in the nation
- Public school funding effort – Utah is the 13th lowest
- Birth rate – Utah has the highest rate in the nation
- Youth organization funding effort – Utah is the fifth lowest
“While Utah is spending a lot on parks and rec, we continue to slide in public school funding effort,” said Shawn Teigen, President of the Utah Foundation. “We are blessed with a comparatively high, though declining, birth rate, but we are slipping further and further down on the other side of that coin – paying to educate those kids.”
Highlights of this Report
- Utah’s focus on future generations is the fifth highest in the nation.
- Utah’s high ranking for its focus on future generations is largely driven by its high birth rates (the highest in the nation) and high level of parks and recreation funding effort (third in the nation).
- Utah’s sub-index score for focus on future generations has declined by 60% over the past 12 years.
- Two-thirds of Utah’s decline in its focus on future generations from 2013 to 2015 was driven by falling birth rates, even as Utah continues to have the highest birth rates in the nation.
- All but two states (Vermont and North Dakota) have seen declines in their focus on future generations from 2013 to 2025.
- The decline in a focus on future generations is particularly high in Mountain States. Six of eight Mountain States are among the top ten states with the biggest drop. All Mountain States have declined more rapidly than the nation at large.
