2018 Equality Index

WHY DOES THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE PUBLISH AN EQUALITY INDEX?

Economic empowerment is the central theme of the National Urban League’s mission. The Equality Index gives us a way to document progress toward this mission for Black and Hispanic Americans relative to whites.

WHAT IS THE EQUALITY INDEX TRYING TO DO?

Imagine if we were to summarize how well African Americans and Hispanics are doing compared to whites in the areas of economics, health, education, social justice and civic engagement and represent that by a pie.

The Equality Index measures the share of that pie which African Americans and Hispanics get.

Whites are used as the benchmark because the history of race in America has created advantages for whites that continue to persist in many of the outcomes being measured.

HOW IS THE EQUALITY INDEX CALCULATED?

The categories that make up the Equality Index are economics, health, education, social justice and civic engagement. In each category, we use nationally representative statistics to calculate a sub-index that captures how well African Americans and Hispanics are doing relative to whites. Each category is weighted, based on the importance that we give to each. The weighted average of all five categories is then calculated to get the total Equality Index.

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