Patchwork Nation: Some Good Economic News for the Holidays

PATCHWORK NATION -- December 23, 2009 at 12:34 PM EDT

Patchwork Nation: Some Good Economic News for the Holidays

The map above shows how counties compare in Patchwork Nation's Hardship Index. Darker shades of red indicate tougher times over the past month, relative to the rest of the country.

Just in time for the year's end, some good economic news from Patchwork Nation: December's Economic Hardship Index scores dropped for December in all 12 community types. A dip in home foreclosures helped, along with smaller increases in unemployment in some key communities.

"The last time the hardship scores for our communities looked this good was in the middle of the presidential campaign - July 2008," writes Patchwork Nation project director Dante Chinni, though he cautions that the foreclosure rate may not peak until 2010.

The score tallies gas prices, unemployment and foreclosure rates by county. See a county map of the U.S. to create an index of how different communities are faring during this recession. In his breakdown, Chinni found the types still hurting most are Minority Central counties, Service Worker Centers, and the big-city Industrial Metropolis counties.

You can find where you fit in to Patchwork Nation and play around with hardship scores by county as far back as June 2009.

Patchwork Nation divides U.S. counties into 12 types that represent pieces of the larger U.S. economic and cultural makeup. The project is a collaboration between the PBS NewsHour, the Christian Science Monitor, and local public broadcasting stations.

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