Our state is known for its attractive lifestyles, from quirky hobbies in Portland to outdoor opportunities on the High Desert. A nonpartisan nonprofit graded Oregon on a different scale — human well-being — and it may be surprising that we didn’t fare so well.

WASHINGTON — Oregonians’ well-being ranks 28th in the nation, well below their neighbors in Washington state and California, according to a new index of human development by the Social Science Research Council.

According to data released earlier this month by the project Measure of America, the human development index, or HDI, for Oregonians was 4.86 on a scale of zero to 10, below the national average of 5.03.

The news isn’t all bad for Oregon; with an average life expectancy of 79.5 years, Oregon’s health index of 5.63 ranks 19th in the nation. Its education index of 4.99 ranks 25th.

Compared with Oregon’s overall HDI score of 4.86 and ranking of 28, California’s HDI is 5.4 and Washington state’s also 5.4, 12th and 13th nationally, respectively.

Oregon’s HDI varies widely by congressional district. Oregon’s 1st District scored a 5.89 HDI followed by the 3rd (5.30) and 5th (5.07), all of which are above the national average. The 4th District’s HDI measured 4.60.

The 2nd District, which includes Central Oregon, earned a 4.26 HDI, the worst in the state. The 2nd District was not last across the board; its health index of 5.38, based on a life expectancy of 78.9 years, was third in the state. But it lagged well behind in education and earnings.

Each of Oregon’s congressional districts saw their HDIs improve in the current rankings, which used data from 2013-14, compared with the data from 2008-09. The 2nd District’s HDI rose from 4.20 to 4.26.

Despite gains in health and education, Portland’s HDI dropped because the median income dropped. It still scored an HDI of 5.46, which ranked 13th among the country’s 25 biggest metropolitan areas.

“What we are seeing is that some groups of Americans are surging ahead, enjoying longer lives and reaching higher levels of educational attainment,” said Sarah Burd Sharps, Measure of America’s other co-director, in a prepared statement. “However, other groups are being left behind in terms of their health and education, and, across the board, earnings are stagnating for ordinary Americans. Leaving people behind hinders our competitiveness and is costly for society as a whole.”

Historically, the new data show considerable improvement from 1960, when the nation’s HDI was 1.63. Life expectancy was under 70; only 7.7 percent of adults earned a bachelor’s degree; and median earnings were roughly $19,000 annually in today’s dollars.

“While the human development trend shows steady progress in health and education, growth in earnings — the wages and salaries of the typical worker — has been anemic,” the report’s authors wrote. “The Great Recession that started in December 2007 undoubtedly pulled wages downward, but the trend of declining earnings was already in place before the onset of the financial crisis. The typical American earned $2,200 less in 2010 than in 2000.”

Indexes like the HDI that use multiple measures can offer a more useful way to compare different parts of the country than a large economic indicator like gross domestic product, said Gregory Squires, a professor of sociology and public policy at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

“GDP is not a characteristic of an individual,” he said. “When you have several measures, you begin to develop a better sense of the quality of life in a community than you would get from just one indicator.”

Measuring well-being

The human development index is a measure of well-being that uses health (measured by life expectancy), education (a combination of educational attainment and enrollment) and standard of living (based on median income). The nonpartisan Measure of America uses this data to look past gross domestic product to measure human progress. The goal, say the project’s co-directors, is to provide a more nuanced answer to the question: How are ordinary Americans doing?