Want More Money? Move to the Mid-Atlantic or New England - East Idaho News
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Want More Money? Move to the Mid-Atlantic or New England

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Getty B 010612 MoneyCash?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1336680602989Nick M Do/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Want to get richer during your lifetime? Live in New York, New Jersey or Maryland, according to a groundbreaking study released Thursday by the Pew Center on the States. People living in the Mid-Atlantic and New England states tend to be the most economically mobile, while those in the South are the least mobile, the study found.

The best places to climb the economic ladder are Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Utah, while the worst states include Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.

And just the act of moving could also could also help you attain the American dream, the study found. One-third of Americans who live in a different state from where they were born are more likely to be upwardly mobile, according to the data.

“Where you live matters for your economic mobility prospects,” study author Erin Currier told ABC News. This is the first time economic mobility has been analyzed on a state-by-state level. And while the study did not look at why the states performed the way they did, past research suggests that higher education, savings and assets, and neighborhood prosperity or poverty during childhood drive economic advancement, said Currier.

Drawing U.S. Census and Social Security data from nearly 65,000 individuals in all 50 states over a 10-year period, the study analyzed three measures of economic mobility: individuals’ earnings growth; individuals’ earnings growth relative to others in their state, and state-wide economic mobility compared to national averages.  

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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