Montco designated 2nd most prosperous place to live in PA

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Montgomery County, based on the "Prosperity Index" defined by The Hamilton Project, was established as the second most prosperous county in Pennsylvania.

Ten years after the Great Recession ceremoniously came to an end in 2009, most metrics show America’s economy has not only been nursed back to health, but continues to grow stronger.

While the United States as a whole is returning to an age of economic prosperity, some parts appear to be stuck in the same place they were ten years ago. The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution recently completed a research project on the subject. The research by The Hamilton Project exposed the disparity of economic success based on location in America’s return to economic prosperity.

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All parts of the country are far from equal when it comes to mending economic wounds left by the Great Recession.

Nearly a decade after the end of the Great Recession, researchers concluded, “prime-age employment rates are 16 percentage points lower in the bottom quintile of counties compared to those at the top. This gap is equivalent to bottom-quintile counties facing three Great Recession declines relative to top counties—a stark measure of the varying employment opportunities and outcomes that Americans face depending on their location.”

The Hamilton Project made a detailed, easy to read economic map of the United States showing the most prosperous regions, and the not so prosperous regions.

The interactive map allows users to explore prosperity across the country from the state level to the county level. The Hamilton Project quantifies prosperity with a formula they call the “Prosperity Index.” The index combines different relevant economic factors such as a “county’s median household income, poverty rate, unemployment rate, prime-age employment rate, life expectancy, and housing vacancy rate.”

Using the Hamilton Project interactive map as a source and the “Prosperity Index” as a measuring stick, here are the ten most and least prosperous places to live in the state of Pennsylvania.

Top 10 most prosperous places to live in PA by “Prosperity Index”:

  1. Chester County:   1.6233
  2. Montgomery County:   1.385
  3. Bucks County:   1.2717
  4. Cumberland County:   0.7063
  5. Butler County:   0.6004
  6. Adams County:   0.5412
  7. Delaware County:   0.5122
  8. Lancaster County:   0.4692
  9. York County:   0.3855
  10. Perry County:   0.3397

Top 10 least prosperous places to live in PA by “Prosperity Index”:

  1. Forest County:   -2.4513
  2. Philadelphia:   -1.52235
  3. Fayette County:   -1.0807
  4. Potter County:   -0.9204
  5. Sullivan County:   -0.8922
  6. McKean County:   -0.8306
  7. Clarion County:   -0.7351
  8. Cambria County:   -0.6288
  9. Greene County:   -0.6266
  10. Wayne:   -0.58

To see The Hamilton Group Interactive Map and to learn more about the “Prosperity Index” click here.

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