There are different ways to assess ‘socially conscious. On one level it refers to a consciousness shared by individuals within a society (for good or for bad). From another perspective, it relates to a series of values that one group or political perspective regards as positive for a given society overall (as in the term ‘social conscience’).
The survey from The Ascent, takes the form of a ranking revealing how 75 U.S. cities are aligned on important social issues. The Ascent research assess each city’s social consciousness ranking on seven factors. These factors are: equality, neighborliness, childcare costs, sustainable development, food access, public transit, and health care costs.
In terms of how some of these metric were defined, equality was based on racial, gender, and LGBTQ factors; ‘neighborliness’ covered factors like volunteering and crime rates, plus the proportion of homeless population who are sheltered, and immigrant-friendliness; and sustainability was based on how well a city was progressing towards meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Using these metrics, major U.S. cities received a score on a 100-point scale for each measure and were then ranked by their overall scores out of 700.
Based on the analysis, ‘The Top 10 Most Socially Conscious Cities’ are:
Washington, D.C.
Baltimore, Md.
Portland, Ore.
Boston, Mass.
Philadelphia, Pa.
Chicago, Ill.
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Seattle, Wash.
San Diego, Calif.
Los Angeles, Calif.
In terms of the scores out of 700, Washington, D.C. received 542 points, receiving high scores for public transport and food access.
At the other end of the scale, the least socially conscious city in the U.S. was found to be Anchorage, Alaska. Others in the lower end of the scale were Arlington, Texas; Bakersfield, California; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Buffalo, New York.
