NEW ORLEANS -- Louisiana's high dropout rates, unemployment and child poverty, and its low health insurance coverage are among a slew of reasons it is next-to-last in a new state-by-state study of social health.

Louisiana was No. 48 in the first such survey released by the Institute for Innovation in Social Policy at Fordham University. The Bayou State switched places this year with Mississippi, No. 49 last year.

"This is a study that tells us what we already know and what we've been working on," said Marsanne Golsby, spokeswoman for Gov. Mike Foster. "Everything the governor has done for the last eight years has been about trying to address all of the issues that are raised," she said.

The institute looks at 16 "social indicators" such as food stamp coverage, average wages, unemployment and poverty among children and among the elderly. Total scores can range from 1 to 100; Iowa, at 72.5, led the nation and Louisiana got a 27.9.

In addition, each state is ranked for each indicator and graded for that category according to which fifth it falls into. Louisiana had nine "F's," more than any state but New Mexico, which had 12.

"There were three indicators that seemed to drive this thing" -- child poverty, health insurance coverage for families, and the high-school completion rate, said Marc Maringoff, director of the institute.

"We've seen that when those things get better, they carry a lot more indicators with them than the others," he said. "If whatever is available could be put into some of those, it would help a lot over time."

In Louisiana, high-school graduates made up 82.1 percent of the people ages 18 to 24 who were not in high school between 1997 and 1999. That put it 45th in the country, ahead of only Alabama, Colorado, Texas, Nevada and Arizona. Maine led the nation at 94.5 percent.

"If the next governor keeps doing what Mike Foster has done you'll see these rankings eventually increase," Golsby said. "We've had a lot quicker improvement in other areas -- particularly test scores -- than we even expected."

Only New Mexico had more children under the age of 18 living in poverty -- 26.2 percent to Louisiana's 24.5 percent. Maryland led the nation, with 6.6 percent.

Texas and New Mexico were the only states with a higher percentage of people under the age of 65 without health insurance.

That figure is 23.45 percent for Louisiana, 24.75 for Texas and 28.15 percent for New Mexico; Rhode Island is No. 1, at 7.5.

Louisiana has nearly doubled the number of poor or low-income children insured by Medicaid and the state's LaCHIP program since 1998, state health department spokesman Bob Johannessen said.

Louisiana's other F's were unemployment, alcohol traffic deaths, infant mortality, income inequality -- the ratio between total incomes for the top and bottom fifths of the population, homicides and people over the age of 65 living in poverty.

The state did get two A's: it was No. 5 in average wages, at just over $662 a week, for people who do have jobs and don't work on farms; and No. 7 in the percentage of eligible households getting food stamps.