Editorial

Numbers show our state is a good place to have a baby

Monday, August 14, 2017

Change is the natural order of things, but that might be difficult for Baby Boomers, who are finding themselves supplanted as the largest living American generation by the Millennials.

Boomers, ages 53-69, have long influenced everything from marketing to politics, thanks to simple demographics, the fact there are nearly 75 million of them. But millennials, ages 20-36, now outnumber them at 75.4 million.

If you hope to be successful in business or other public enterprises, you need to consider what Millennials need.

Groups like the McCook Young Professionals Group, McCook Economic Development Corp. and the McCook Area Chamber of Commerce, with its goal of making McCook a “great place to live, work and play,” seem to have gotten the message.

We’ve cited a number of factors that make Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas attractive places for all generations to live, but WalletHub reports some interesting facts for people of child-bearing age.

The website released a ranking of 2017’s Best & Worst States to Have a Baby that adds to Nebraska’s arsenal of attractions.

WalletHub compared to 50 states and District of Columbia across 20 key measures of cost, health care accessibility and baby-friendliness.

Data from hospital conventional-delivery charges, annual average infant-care costs and pediatricians per capita were among the types of information collected.

Nebraska is the 10th best place to have a baby, according to the numbers:

Having a Baby in Nebraska

(1=Best; 25=Avg.)

* 13th – Hospital Cesarean-Delivery Charges

* 6th – Hospital Conventional-Delivery Charges

* 22nd – Avg. Annual Cost of Early Child Care

* 21st – Infant Mortality Rate

* 16th – Rate of Low Birth-Weight

* 21st – Midwives & OB-GYNs per Capita

* 5th – Pediatricians & Family Doctors per Capita

* 13th – Child-Care Centers per Capita

* 20th – Parental-Leave Policy Score

Nebraska trails, in order, Vermont, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Connecticut, North Dakota, Massachusetts, Main, Utah and Iowa, and ranks one ahead of Colorado.

The worst place to have a baby, according to WalletHub, is Mississipi, followed by Lousiana, Nevada, West Virginia, Alabama, SouthCarolina and Florida.

For the full report, visit http://bit.ly/2vUUVko

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