About the Project

The American Human Development Project is dedicated to stimulating fact-based public debate about and political attention to issues that affect people’s well-being and access to opportunity in the United States. The hallmark of this work is the American Human Development Index, a measure that paints a portrait of Americans today and empowers communities with a tool to track progress in areas we all care about: health, education, and income.

In July 2008, the project launched The Measure of America: American Human Development Report 2008-2009, the first-ever report on human development in the United States or any affluent country. In 2009, the project released two state-level human development reports. Through these studies and the project’s interactive website, the American Human Development Project aims to breathe life into numbers, using data to create compelling narratives that foster understanding of and support for social change.

The American Human Development Project is an initiative of the Social Science Research Council and is made possible through the generous support of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and The Lincy Foundation.

On November 11, 2010, the American Human Development Project will release the second biennial American Human Development Report, The Measure of America 2010-2011: Mapping Risks and Resilience.

Although its work is modeled on the approach pioneered by the United Nations in its annual Human Development Reports, the American Human Development Project has no affiliation with the United Nations.