The Bronx Is Home to Nation’s Worst Economy for Young People

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New York’s 15th Congressional District, where Ortiz lives with her family, offers the worst economic prospects in the U.S. for residents ages 18 to 34 years old, according to a new index compiled by Bloomberg. By contrast, the district with the second-best prospects is just a few miles away: New York’s 12th, which includes parts of eastern Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.

Data for the Bloomberg Disenfranchised Youth Index come from 2018 U.S. Census statistics, the most recent available. Criteria are the share of young adults who were unemployed, living with a parent, stuck in poverty and lacking a high school diploma that year. Each metric was calculated separately and weighted equally to create an overall score.

The data show exactly where young people were left behind in the 11-year expansion and job-market boom that now has come to a crashing halt.

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Areas represented by Democrats dominated both extremes, including 19 of the 20 worst-ranking Congressional Districts and 16 of the 20 at the top.
Mississippi’s 2nd, in the western part of the state, and California’s 21st, in the San Joaquin Valley, rounded out the bottom three. Illinois’s 5th, which includes portions of Chicago, and California’s 12th, which covers most of San Francisco and is represented by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, joined New York’s 12th as the least disenfranchised.

The index reflects a rise in young people’s financial reliance on their mothers and fathers for housing and other expenses, even in affluent areas. In parts of New York’s suburban Westchester County and the north and south shores of Long Island, more than half of 18-to-34-year-olds live with a parent.

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