Report Card: Grading U.S. Infrastructure

Part One: Why U.S. Infrastructure Needed Investment

U.S. infrastructure has been a significant topic of conversation over the past few years, with the 117th Congress looking to repair and improve much of the nation’s ailing backbone.

For this three-part Rejuvenating U.S. Infrastructure series, we partnered with Global X ETFs to explore what prompted the U.S. to spend heavily on infrastructure, the corrections they made, and the investments in American innovation through bills such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.  

But first, in part one, let’s find out what led the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to report that, without action, the poor state of the nation’s infrastructure could cost the country a staggering $10 trillion in lost GDP by 2039.

U.S. Infrastructure Woes

Every four years, the experts at the ASCE award the various areas of U.S. infrastructure with a letter grade. In 2021, they cumulatively awarded the nation a C- for its infrastructure, a small improvement from the D+ they awarded the U.S. in 2016, but the range in grades between each area is significant:

Source of the Problem

Simply put, U.S. infrastructure was old and needed investment and modernization. A great example is that, in 2021, the nation’s busiest train route, the Northeast Corridor, had a $45 billion repair backlog that caused nearly 230 days’ worth of train delays.    

Another contributing factor was public access. In 2021, slow system growth left 45% of Americans needing access to public transit.  

Investing in a Solution

In 2021, the U.S. invested only 0.5% of its GDP in infrastructure, whereas Australia invested 1.5% and China invested 4.8% in the same year. So, it was clear that further investment was the solution. 

In the second part of this series, we explore how the U.S. has allocated $1.2 trillion for its infrastructure in the last few years, while in the third, we explore how infrastructure investment is accelerating the U.S. clean energy transition.

The U.S. Congress has approved several critical pieces of legislation, including the CHIPS Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, aimed at modernizing its infrastructure to meet the demands of the 21st century, and you can join them by investing in American innovation. 

Click here to learn more about the Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF.

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