The US-Mexico Border Human Development Index, 1990–2015: Improvements but Still Large Gaps

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper uses Mexico's 2015 Inter-census Survey, the US's American Community Survey, and publicly available data on health, education, and the economy to update the Border Human Development Index (BHDI). The purpose of this index is to provide time series and cross sections of comparative measures of well-being in the states, counties and municipios that line the US-Mexico Border. For the time period spanned by the sample, 1990–2015, we find that both sides of the border have experienced steady gains in the BHDI at all regional levels. The largest gains are observed in border counties and municipios. During this 25 year period, the BHDI for Mexican border municipios increased slightly more than US border counties, indicating a small narrowing of the development gap. A slightly smaller narrowing of the gap is also seen at the national level. Nonetheless, the gap in human development between the two countries, as well as US counties and Mexican municipios remains large, particularly in the area of education.