Peace, Justice and Human Rights: Constructing an Inequality Index for South Florida

South Florida’s racial and ethnic diversity make it an interesting, as well as significant region to
examine issues of inequality. Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties represent a
unique demographic and cultural milieu that composes south Florida. As part of Florida Atlantic
University’s Peace, Justice and Human Rights Initiative, we are working towards creating a report card
that reveals various health, social, economic and other disparities experienced by local populations.
This project promotes a greater awareness centered on the issues of inequality by looking specifically
at datasets that highlight demographic information within south Florida. Constructing a human rights
report card requires an assiduous effort in locating and analyzing relevant and available data.
Healthcare, education, crime and poverty were among the indicators for which data was collected. All
data was gathered from various government agencies including the U.S. Census Bureau, Florida
Department of Education, National Vital Statistics, among others. Statistics were then compared
between the four
counties, the state of Florida, and the United States to demonstrate south Florida’s current status as it
relates to state and national levels of inequality. This report card highlights the various areas of
socioeconomic disparities present between south Florida’s communities by analyzing county-level
demographic data. The analysis of various health, social and economic data contributes towards a
more comprehensive understanding of the adversities that local populations experience.