Data Sources

Authoritative public datasets, government statistics, and licensed economic feeds underpinning every score.

U.S. Census Bureau (ACS)

Annual American Community Survey — population, demographics, income, education, housing characteristics.

demographicspopulationhousing

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Wage data, unemployment rates, industry employment, and occupational projections by metro area.

salaryunemploymentjobs

Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

Metropolitan-level GDP, personal income, and economic growth statistics.

gdpgrowtheconomy

FBI Uniform Crime Reporting

City-level crime rates feeding the safety component of the livability score.

crimesafety

NOAA Climate Data

30-year averages for temperature, precipitation, snowfall, and sunny days per city.

climateweather

Walk Score & Transit Score

Licensed walkability and transit accessibility metrics integrated into the livability score.

walkabilitytransit

Zillow / Apartment List Indices

Rental and home-price indices for the housing components of cost of living.

renthousing

Federal Reserve Economic Data

Macroeconomic indicators — inflation, regional Fed beige-book signals.

economyinflation

State Secretary of State filings

LLC/corporation filing fees and processing times for the Business Formation module.

businesscompliance

CMS Care Compare

Nursing-home inspection results, staffing data, and quality ratings for Senior Care Intelligence.

healthcaresenior-care

How often is the data refreshed?

Demographic and economic feeds: annually (as agencies release updates). Rental & home-price indices: monthly. Score recomputation: monthly. We log the last_updated_date on every record.