About This Publication
The Belonging Index is CDO’s longitudinal, multi-dimensional measure of economic ownership, civic agency, and community resilience in the United States. It tracks 33 indicators from 1920 to the present, producing an annual composite score on a 0–100 scale.
The 2025 composite score is 27.5 out of 100 — the lowest recorded since measurement began. The index classifies the current period as Stable But Hollow: surface-level economic activity masking structural fragility across every dimension of ownership and civic participation.
What the Report Contains
- Methodology and data sources — full variable selection rationale, weighting methodology, and data source documentation across all 33 indicators
- Historical time series, 1920–2025 — composite score and six-dimension breakdown across a century of U.S. economic history
- The 1978–1982 inflection point — analysis of the moment at which all six index dimensions turn simultaneously, and the structural forces that explain the convergence
- International benchmarking — U.S. score compared against 20 OECD peer democracies. The United States ranks last among high-income peers. Denmark: 83.8. Germany: 71.2. United Kingdom: 58.4.
- Six-dimension analysis — Ownership, Agency, Community Resilience, Rootedness, Civic Participation, and Intergenerational Mobility, with indicator-level findings for each
- Policy implications — what the data suggests about the structural interventions most likely to reverse the index’s trajectory
The Six Dimensions
Ownership
Score: 18.4
Mutualist sector share, homeownership by cohort, equity distribution by wealth quintile
Agency
Score: 22.1
Union density, local election participation, cooperative governance, local press survival
Community Resilience
Score: 21.3
Community banking share, local business survival, household liquidity by income quintile
Rootedness
Score: 31.7
Residential tenure, forced vs. aspirational mobility, multigenerational household rates
Civic Participation
Score: 34.2
Local voter turnout, civic association membership, institutional trust trends
Intergenerational Mobility
Score: 37.5
Earnings mobility by birth county, college attendance by income quintile, wealth transmission rates
The interactive index is publicly available at signals.americandreaming.us. The full report — including methodology documentation and indicator-level data tables — is available on request to researchers, policymakers, and foundation officers.