Social Capital – Social Capital Index
Social capital is a measure of economic benefits gained from cooperation between individuals and groups. The indicator measures each county’s social capital as an index relative to all other counties in the United States. An index score of less than 0 indicates lower economic benefits while a score of more than 0 indicates higher economic benefits from cooperation between individuals and groups.
Source
Source Description
The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development is located at the Pennsylvania State University and collaborates with land grant institutions in the northeastern United States. The Center works to address issues facing rural communities, such as community development, food systems, and land use. Each Center is administered by a joint agreement between USDA and the site institution operating for the Extension Service and the Experiment Station in the region. For more information, please visit the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development website.
Methodology
All values (index values and inputs) were downloaded from the Pennsylvania State University Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development (NERCRD).
The composite social capital index was created by the NERCRD by analyzing county-level data related to civic engagement and voluntary community action. The variables used in the analysis are: total associations per 10,000 people (data source: US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns), number of not-for-profit organizations per 10,000 people (source: The National Center for Charitable Statistics, census mail response rates (US Census Bureau, 2010 Census Participation Rates), and estimated voter participation (data source: US Census Bureau, Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2012. Each of these variables was standardized to have a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one. The mean of the standardized variables was used to create the composite index. For more information, please refer to the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development Social Capital web page.
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