Mixed Report on Progress

In trying to measure the nation's progress -- or lack of it -- the Federal Government has always paid more attention to the quantity of economic growth than to the quality of everyday life. In an attempt to gauge that quality, the Office of Management and Bud get is releasing this week the first Social Indicators report. With a wealth of statistics and charts, the 258-page, $7.80 paperback book shows the fairly recent changes -- for better or worse -- in American housing, employment, life and death rates, public safety, education and leisure-time pursuits.

Among the good news is the improvement in the nation's housing. From 1940 to 1970, the number of families liv ing in housing officially classified as sub standard dropped dramatically, from 48.6% to 7.4%. During the same peri od, the number of persons aged 25 to 29 who were college-educated rose from 5.8% to 16.4%.

The worst news concerns crime. Ac cording to FBI statistics, more than half the crimes of burglary, auto theft and larceny over $50 are not reported. The number of people afraid to walk alone at night increased from 34% in 1965 to 42% in 1972. Forcible rape increased from 18.6 per 100,000 women in 1960 to 43.5 in 1972.

Some unsettling changes are report ed without any explanation. The death rate for nonwhite men, for example, in creased from 1,211 per 100,000 persons in 1960 to 1,251 in 1971. Meanwhile, the rate for everybody else fell slowly.

On the good side, however, the infant mortality rate has declined for all races, from 47 per 1,000 live births in 1940 to 19.2 in 1971. Also presumably an improvement, although many might dis agree, is the fact that only 9% of U.S. households had television sets in 1950, while 96% had them in 1972.

The report does not make judgments about society's condition. It leaves that to the public and the experts, who are urged to offer comments and corrections. In time, all those statistics and surveys will give federal officials a clearer picture of the U.S. and help them tailor social policies more closely to the needs of the nation.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.