Center releases 2011 Briefing Book on the South

Oct 6, 2011

50-page work of 750 statistics indicates region’s “Civil War hangover”

OCT. 6, 2011 — The Center for a Better South today released a sweeping overview of the region filled with 36 statistical indicators and more than 70 data points about each of the South’s 11 states.

“Our new 2011 Briefing Book on the South is a rich resource for policymakers and thinking leaders who want to get an overview about the region and how it fits in with the rest of the country.  It also help those who want to drill down and see how individual states are performing relative to other states,” said Center President Andy Brack.  “People who look at what we found from Census data and various studies will more than likely have great reason to pause and reflect about how the South is really doing.”

The data suggest, Brack said, that the South often remains where it doesn’t want to be — on the bottom of lists of everything from poverty, hunger, health care and more.  And that’s despite a regional economy that is more diverse, larger and more important than it ever has been.

“The South continues to play catch-up with the rest of America,” Brack said.  “We’re way better off than we were 40 years ago when most of the region finally integrated.  But just as we have gotten better and invested in our future, so too have other states.  And as we improved, they continued to improve more.  So now, 150 years after the shots fired onto Fort Sumter in Charleston, the states of the American South still have a lingering statistical hangover — a Civil War hangover — compared to other areas on the country.”

You can download the 51-page report here:

• http://www.bettersouth.org/publications/2011-briefing-book-on-the-south/
  
• Read more about the Briefing Book

A note on the numbers:  Please be sure to check the source data on any numbers cited now or in the future to guard against transcription errors.  Sources are in the full report after each indicator.