Holland area tops for basic needs

Among the 187 U.S. metro areas surveyed for a national well-being initiative, Holland-Grand Haven, Michigan led the nation in providing basic necessities -- such as safe places to exercise and easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables -- to its residents.

The survey was conducted last year for the Gallup-Healthways Basic Access Index, a 13-item measure of Americans' access to basic necessities in the cities or areas where they live. City scores from the responses were used to calculate the Basic Access Index. The national average for 2009 was 82.2 out of 100 points, down from 83.6 in 2008. At the top of the list, Holland-Grand Haven scored 89.3, followed by Madison, WI and two metro areas in Iowa that all scored 87 or above. The national average was 82.2, down from 83.6 in 2008.

The Gallup-Healthways data also helps document an important link between meeting residents' basic needs and crime in their areas. Analysis of the most recent FBI crime statistics available, from 2008, and Basic Access Index data from the same year, finds that the metro areas with the best Basic Access Index scores consistently had lower violent crime and property crime rates than those with higher scores.

Underscoring the connection between better access to basic necessities and community crime rates, the pattern held up when analysts controlled for average household income by sorting the metro areas into high-income ($63,000 per year or more), middle-income ($57,000 to $62,999), and low-income (less than $57,000 per year) categories.

For example, "middle income" metro areas with bottom-third basic access scores had 77% higher violent crime rates and 41% higher property crime rates than similarly wealthy top-third metro areas. Additionally, the lowest-income metro areas that maintain strong Basic Access Index scores had lower rates of violent and property crime per 100,000 residents than did the highest-income metro areas that have low basic access scores: 305 vs. 524 (violent) and 3,091 vs. 3,329 (property), respectively.

MI Perspective: Survey data such as this are valuable for demonstrating what many residents already know -- that Michigan is a great place to live and work. An even greater value, however, is in spreading this information to prospective residents and employers looking for new business locations. Everyone with an interest in boosting the state's economic fortunes should point with pride to such findings of Michigan quality of life, not just for the good of the Holland metro area, but for the entire state and its less-discovered gems.