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WASHTENAW COUNTY – Washtenaw County’s Office of Community and Economic Development has released an updated Opportunity Index, with technical support from Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan. 

Originally launched in 2015, the Opportunity Index aims to pinpoint areas with limited opportunity to help direct resources to those areas to foster greater equity for all residents of Washtenaw County. The latest version of the index builds off previous iterations and uses up-to-date data to measure access to opportunity across Washtenaw County census tracts. Poverty Solutions also worked with the County on the 2020 update to the Opportunity Index. 

Amanda Nothaft

“Based on community feedback, we designed this version of the Opportunity Index to be more user-friendly and easier to navigate. We hope this can be a resource for local governments, community organizations, service providers, educators, and other community members as they seek to advance equity within our county,” said Amanda Nothaft, director of data and analysis at Poverty Solutions, who led the Opportunity Index analysis.   

Washtenaw County defines opportunity as the ability of individuals to access fundamental resources, such as safe, affordable housing, high-quality education, well-paying jobs, and comprehensive health care. 

The Opportunity Index uses data from five different categories of opportunity: health, job access, education and training, economic well-being, and community engagement. The categories take into account 19 different indicators, such as life expectancy, high school dropout rates, and homeownership rates.

The index shows how each census tract compares to the county-wide average in terms of access to opportunity. Access to opportunity is ranked as very high, high, low, or very low. 

See key findings from each category of the Opportunity Index: 

• Health
• Economic Well-being
• Community Engagement
• Education and Training
• Job Access