Temptation island?

Single women who like the odds to be in their favor might consider moving to Nantucket. According to the Web site ePodunk.com, the island is the only county in New England that has more single men than single women, with 105 available guys for every 100 detached dolls. (Essex County, Vt., comes the closest to equilibrium among the New England states, with 99 single men to every 100 single women.) But on the mainland, guys have the edge. Barnstable County is tied with Bristol County, RI, for the most lopsided population in the region, with just 74 single men for every 100 single women. Men would seem to have it made in Hampshire and Norfolk counties as well, where for every 100 single women there are only 75 single men.

The miscellaneous miracle

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers (www.nasbo.org), the Bay State is relatively generous in funding public assistance programs but frugal when it comes to prisons and public schools. In analyzing state expenditures for fiscal 2002, NASBO ranked Massachusetts 46th in the percentage of funds going to higher education (4.3 percent, compared with 11.2 percent nationwide); 41st in spending on corrections (2.2 percent vs. 3.6 percent), in part because the Bay State excludes all of juvenile corrections and part of county jails from its spending report; and 40th in spending on elementary and secondary education (17.9 percent vs. 21.6 percent), which is still principally supported by local property taxes.

But the Bay State made the top 10 in two categories. It ranks second to California in the percentage of funds spent on public assistance (4.8 percent vs. 2.1 percent nationwide). And adding to the air of mystery that often surrounds the budget process here, Massachusetts ranks fifth in the percentage of spending going to “other” functions–that is, what’s left over after spending for Medicaid, transportation, and all the categories mentioned above. Massachusetts devotes 43.6 percent of its budget to these miscellaneous programs, compared with a national average of 32.6 percent. Oregon is tops in “other” spending (almost exactly 50 percent of the budget), while Wyoming reports no expenditures outside the major categories.

From fiscal 2001 to fiscal 2002, state expenditures in Massachusetts rose by 3.1 percent, which puts the Commonwealth in 41st place in terms of spending growth. When NASBO compared fiscal 2002 to state budgets for fiscal 2003, the Bay State fell to 46th in the rate of increase, with expenditures set to drop by 0.7 percent. The national average was an increase of 4.8 percent.

You’ll miss them when they’re gone

There’s decay in the dental profession, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (www.ncsl.org). Using data from the American Dental Association, the group warns that “the number of dentists in every state will severely decline in the next two decades because most are near retirement and too few are entering the profession.” As of 1999, about 69 percent of the nation’s dentists were older than 45, and many of them were cutting back their work hours in anticipation of retirement.

The study shows that the dental future was marginally brighter in Massachusetts, where 64 percent of dentists were older than 45; only California, Delaware, and New York had dental corps as youthful. The problem was worst in Maine, where 78 percent of the dentists were long in the tooth.

These old homebodies

Americans are becoming more mobile, but in Massachusetts plenty of people prefer to stay put. According to 2000 Census figures, 13.4 percent of households in the Bay State have occupied the same home for at least 30 years–which puts us in a tie for third place with neighboring Connecticut, behind Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Among Massachusetts communities, the compact town of Avon has the most stable population, with 37 percent of its 1,705 families living in the same home since 1969. Following closely behind are Everett, Adams, and Somerville. While those communities also have among the oldest housing supplies in the state (most of the homes and apartments were built before 1940), Avon has relatively modern housing stock. Only 31 percent of its residential units were built before 1940, compared with 35 percent statewide. It appears that Avon attracted a large number of families in the years between World War II and Watergate who bought new homes and grew old in them. But perhaps the words “upward” and “mobility” really do go together: This town of long-term residents placed 346th among the state’s 351 communities in the growth of median household income during the 1990s.

As for the towns with the lowest percentages of long-term residents, it’s no surprise that most are on Cape Cod or the South Shore. Only 106, or 2.4 percent, of Mashpee’s 5,256 households were there before 1970. The runners-up in this category are Brewster, Carver, and Sandwich.

Breathe our air, but stay off our bridges

Last fall Massachusetts was one of only three states to get straight As in an annual survey by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (www.cfed.org), a Washington, DC-based nonprofit that monitors business climate and quality-of-life issues. The Bay State took top scores in the general areas of Performance (which includes employment, poverty and crime rates, and the cleanliness of the environment), Business Vitality, and Development Capacity. Only Minnesota and Virginia scored as well; Mississippi and West Virginia were at the bottom of the scale.

The Bay State scored particularly well in “resource efficiency” (thanks to recycling programs and reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases and toxic chemicals) and “protecting the health of its young citizens” (thanks to low rates of infant mortality and teenage pregnancy). But Massachusetts did pick up some demerits in income distribution, housing and energy costs, and the amount of private lending to small businesses.

Perhaps indicating that Massachusetts is better at building things than maintaining them, the state ranked first in venture capital investments and second in initial public offerings, but 49th in the state of its bridges.

Truckers refuse to buckle under

A record 62 percent of all vehicle occupants in Massachusetts used seat belts in June 2003, according to figures recently released by the Governor’s Highway Safety Bureau. That’s up from 51 percent in 2002, but still nothing to crow about compared with the national average of 79 percent. The bureau’s figures are based on an observation of 47,179 motor vehicles during the month of June.

Women, as drivers (73 percent) and as front-seat passengers (69 percent), were much more likely to buckle up than were male drivers (58 percent) or front-seat passengers (51 percent). And “senior” drivers (72 percent) were more cautious than teens behind the wheel (58 percent). Seat belts were most widely used in the Pioneer Valley and central Massachusetts regions, and most often ignored in the southeastern part of the state.

A majority of drivers and front-seat passengers in pick-up trucks were still riding without a net, but the lowest rates of seat-belt use were among operators and riders in commercial vehicles.