Urban sprawl stunts upward mobility.

• Position: Your Life - Brief article

"Upward mobility is significantly higher in compact areas than sprawling areas," claims Reid Ewing, associate editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association, columnist for Planning magazine, and professor in the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

"As the compactness index for a metropolitan area doubles, the likelihood that a child who is born into the bottom fifth of national income distribution will reach the top fifth by age 30 increases by 41 %."

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