Centuries ago, the fastest form of long-distance communication was a letter delivered by horseback. Today, people on opposite sides of the world can send messages almost instantaneously, and ideas that once took centuries to spread now circulate in seconds. This transformation does more than accelerate communication—it reshapes how people think, interact, and organize their societies. In other words, technology doesn’t just transmit culture; it actively molds it. The cultural power of technology is undeniable.
The same can be said of the economy. Economic outcomes are deeply influenced by cultural norms and social structures. For example, the strongest predictor of whether an American child is poor is not wage growth or the labor participation rate, but whether that child’s father is present in the home. This suggests that policies encouraging stable family structures—such as marriage and childbirth within marriage—can play a significant role in reducing childhood poverty. More broadly, when a culture does not respect basic norms like property rights, markets struggle and often fail. Just as technology reshapes culture, culture in turn shapes economic outcomes, making the two inseparable.
Because culture, the economy, and technology share a mutual fate, their interaction must be measured and analyzed. That task, however, is not an easy one. Economic indicators—per capita income, inflation, GDP—are commonplace. Similarly, with tech, it is easy to track computer processing speed, bandwidth and latency in wireless networks, and thousands of other tech metrics. But culture isn’t so easy to measure.
So, how do we measure cultural health? The purpose of The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Culture and Opportunity is to answer that question by measuring and assessing the progress or decline of American culture and by tracking key indicators that are proxies for cultural health.
Behind the choice of measures lies the conviction that culture and economic opportunity are inseparable. Simply put, a healthy culture—stable families, healthy children, vibrant religious and virtue-forming institutions and practices—has economic benefits as profound as limited government, market-driven prices, and rule of law. So, then, in the long run, the health of our economy depends greatly upon the health of our culture, and vice versa.
It would be nice if a healthy culture always gave rise to tech innovation and economic growth, and if these, in turn, always strengthened culture, but the real world is often messy. Wealth is not always paired with virtue, and technology, even at its best, has both an upside and a downside. Thomas Sowell’s dictum, “There are no solutions; only tradeoffs,” certainly applies. A high-speed internet can deliver free and engaging math tutorials to homeschool families. It can also deliver toxic ideas—from gender ideology to racism—and addictive pornography to vulnerable teens.
Thus, the effect of technology on culture can be counterintuitive. Take, for instance, the decline in teen sexual activity since the 1980s. In isolation, it’s good news that fewer teens, on average, are having casual sex. But this trend has little to do with a growing commitment to chastity. It’s likely due to the debilitating forces of social media and online porn, which are fueling an epidemic of teen loneliness and eroding traditional dating norms. Social isolation is hardly the best treatment for promiscuity.
Perhaps widespread prosperity and vice can coexist for a time. Maybe per capita income and tech innovation could surge along with, say, the abortion rate and the rate of out-of-wedlock births. But the wiser bet is that, in the long run, the culture and the economy will stand and fall together. The erosion of marriage and religious observance mirrors persistent economic ills such as rising government spending and declining fertility rates. Fatherless homes lead not just to more crime, but also to sicker kids.
Obviously, the decline in religious attendance—from 35 percent weekly in 1975 to 22 percent in 2022—signals a broader drift away from the Biblical roots that once grounded American culture. What may be less obvious is that that decline has almost surely harmed the stability of families, the mental health of children, and even total fertility rates.
Yet, amidst these challenges, there are glimmers of hope. The recent surge in school choice programs in the states is a shining example. Yes, this is largely due to the collapse of trust in public institutions, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdowns and mandates. Still, greater choice for families introduces market competition where it is most needed. It also allows parents to tailor learning to their worldview and to their children’s needs.
Volunteerism, a cornerstone of American civic life, also remains robust. The 2024 flood disaster in North Carolina exposed the inadequacy of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but it also created space for thousands of Americans to help victims—many of whom were strangers. This taught us that societies left free to forge bonds of mutual affection will do so by creating strong neighborhoods, virtuous friendships, and tightly knit families. Government programs, contrarily, often create dependency and more easily erode the cultural fabric.
A third sign of hope is border security. The data included here reveals the near collapse of border security during the previous Administration. That trend has radically reversed with a change of policy under President Trump.
Finally, the rise in heart disease, obesity, and diabetes shows that Americans, who spend more on “health care” than any other country, are in the throes of a chronic disease epidemic. Thankfully, this crisis is now at the center of public concern, and the leaders of our federal health agencies now seem sincerely committed to tackling it.
The 2026 Index of Culture and Opportunity is not a random collection of disparate data points. Rather, it is a carefully prepared mosaic of key indicators that show where policymaking should go. Legislators and thought leaders would do well to discern in these pages the interrelated trends that can guide their future choices. Whether fixing the marriage penalties embedded in our welfare programs, healing the root causes of declining fertility, or considering whether the rise of religious “nones” may erode the “free exercise of religion” guaranteed by the First Amendment, cultural renewal demands that both citizens and public servants think clearly, and act boldly. But in order to fix or improve our culture, we must first measure and take stock. This Index does exactly that. I hope readers find it as illuminating as I have.
