Local Indicators Sorted by Framework
Category: Endowments
Subcategory: Economic

The indicators in the following list are those rated 5 or higher from Appendix A of the Guide to Community Indicators, Second Edition (note, the SDI Group recommends a ranking of 5 or better if possible in order to provide a robust measure of livability).

Economic Diversity Indicators:

• Discrimination in the workplace
  
• Occupational distribution of women and minorities
  
• Number of commercial crop varieties
  
• Employment by sector
  
• Employment by top five employers
  

• Distribution of wealth
  
• Income distribution
  
• Average income of the bottom and top 20 percent
  
• Hours of labor required to meet basic needs
  
• Population areas with poverty more than 1.5 times state rate
  

• Percent of harvested forest successfully restocked
  
• Affordable warmth (average energy efficiency rating of homes)
  

Materials Indicators:

• Accumulated depreciation of natural resources
• Renewable resources used/total natural resources used

Housing Availability Indicators:

• Homeownership rate

• Floor area per person in housing
• Housing that is inadequate, overcrowded, or costs over 30% of income

• Affordability of single family home
• Renters who cannot afford to live in the city
• Low-income renters paying more than 30 percent of income on rent
• Home ownership rate
• Housing affordability ratio - rent prices
• Median family income as percent of median single family house price
• Median family income as percent of average rent on two-bedroom apartment
• Median family income as percent of annual single family house mortgage payment
• Percent of households able to afford buying median single family house

http://www.sdi.gov/indicators/lc_en_ec.htm Last Modified: May 13, 2002