Quality of Life

What do we mean by "quality of life?" Using data from this site, it combines these factors, from surveys of people, to rank counties:

• # of days of poor or fair health days
• # of poor physical health days
• # of poor mental health days
• low birth weights

By that measure, and I'd quibble like crazy over low birth weights being included, you get an interesting rank of Georgia counties.

1. Forsyth
2. Lumpkin
3. Fayette
4. Cherokee
5. Gwinnett
6. Towns
7. Columbia
8. Cobb
9. Union
10. Oconee

Yes, apparently "quality of life" is the same as boring. And white. The #1 above, Forsyth County, has 2.7 percent of its population African American. Also, it's the second from lowest in terms of percent of children living in poverty. So really these measures are a lot more than merely "quality of life." If you really want to understand these "quality of life" measures, put them next to the "social and economic" factors. For fun I give them to you below.

	Qualify of Life Ranking	SES Ranking
Forsyth	1	2
Lumpkin	2	32
Fayette	3	3
Cherokee	4	5
Gwinnet	5	14
Towns	6	38
Columbia	7	4
Cobb	8	10
Union	9	58
Oconee	10	1

 

Interestingly, the correlation between "quality of life" and "social and economic factors" is r = .62. That's pretty damn high.  Union County really sticks out as an aberration. I'll get into that another day, but I suspect it has to do with the wealth surrounding Lake Oconee. For example, Union is 35th in "length of life" and 9th in "quality of life" and 5th in "health behaviors," but it also has a poor population who don't live around the lake in McMansions.