Welcome to the Charlotte Regional Indicators Project

The quality of life or well-being of a community is measured by many social, economic, and environmental factors. In the Charlotte region,it has become increasingly evident that these factors can only be effectively measured and addressed by crossing political boundaries and looking at the entire geographic area or region. Successful regional approaches to maintaining and enhancing the region’s quality of life require tracking and assessing trends over time. Click here for full report

The Charlotte Regional Indicators Project is intended to do just that. It will provide critical benchmarks measured over time and compared to state and/or national data, for the 14-county, 2-state region: Anson, Cabarrus, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln,Mecklenburg, Rowan, Stanly and Union counties in North Carolina; and,Chester, Lancaster and York counties in South Carolina. The Indicators Project will provide objective, reliable, and relevant data that measure the region’s annual progress on a wide range of indicators that impact the region’s quality of life.

The Indicators Project focuses on ten theme areas: Arts, Recreation,and Cultural Life; the Economy; Education; the Environment; Government and Citizen Participation; Health; Housing; Public Safety; Social Well-Being; and Transportation. Individually, the ten theme areas represent critical components of the region’s quality of life.Collectively, the ten theme areas provide a holistic framework that allows the region to better understand the inter-relationships among them.

The Indicators Project builds upon the work of several earlier attempts to establish a benchmarking initiative for the Charlotte region, and has also drawn heavily upon the experiences of similar efforts in other areas across the country, such as the Boston Indicators Project and Sustainable Seattle. These successful initiatives are impressive not only for the breadth and depth of their research, but for their power to transform the way in which public policy decisions are being addressed in their respective communities. Central to their ability to do that is their embrace of technology and in particular, their use of the Internet to “democratize” access to the data. This use of the Internet is one of the things that distinguishes the Indicators Project from previous benchmarking initiatives in the Charlotte region, and one that we think will solidify its ongoing relevance to both policy makers and residents.

The Institute recognizes that as in other cities, this initial study is only a starting point. Indeed, for the Indicators Project to remain relevant, the indicators must be continually updated and improved, and the Project’s website further enhanced to make it more interactive. An advisory board comprised of regional community leaders will provide future direction for the Indicators Project. The advisory board will be responsible for continually reviewing and refining the focus and content of the Indicators Project. Additionally, the advisory board will champion use of the report among community and business leaders,elected officials, and the public.

The Indicators Project is intended to grow with each annual report,truly engaging the entire region and providing the general public,business and government leaders, and other organizations with the information they need to effect positive change in the region’s quality of life. Your feedback is welcomed and encouraged in this process.

The Inaugural Indicators Report

The Inaugural Charlotte Regional Indicators Project report is comprised of a letter from Institute director Jeff Michael, this Introduction giving an overview of the Project, a perspective essay by former Institute director Bill McCoy, a chapter on each of the Indicator Project’s ten quality of life theme areas covering a total of54 indicators, and a chapter on general demographics for the region.Each indicator is illustrated with maps and graphs.

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute provided staff and research support for the Indicators Project and compiling of the report. The Institute staff was responsible for facilitating theme area task force meetings, collecting and refining data, and compiling indicator measures. Theme area task forces were comprised of experts and leaders in the region knowledgeable about specific quality of life factors. The task forces guided the selection and review of indicators included in the indicators report. Working with Institute staff, each task force identified a set of prioritized indicators for research and inclusion in the initial report. The task forces will be asked to reconvene to recommend refinements or additions to theme areas as subsequent reports are released.

It is important to note that this inaugural effort is shaped by certain constraints, notably a purposeful decision to start modestly and add or enhance indicators over time as data availability and research capacity permit. This dictated that this first set of indicators had to be not only objective, reliable and relevant, they also had to be cost-effective to compile and likely to remain so in the future. This placed a premium on indicators for which federally- or state-mandated and collected data is readily available over indicators for which local governments or other multiple organizations are the only sources of data or for which primary data collection would be required. In many cases, the Indicator Project’s research process has identified indicators that would be preferable to those currently available, but for which there is currently no reliable, cost-effective source of data. This lack of appropriate data for assessing regional challenges is itself a challenge that the region needs to address.

While the indicators in the report can be used to identify or analyze problems or progress, the Indicator Project’s true impact will be realized in the region’s responses to the challenges the indicators highlight. These responses must be created through the active dialogue and collaboration of stakeholders throughout the 14 counties. Available through published reports and a website, the indicators report is meant to be used by a broad range of stakeholders, including research and planning professionals, local governments, community organizations, and the public. The measures are intended to inform the development of innovative solutions and public policy initiatives to address the challenges facing the region in the 21^st century.

Acknowledgements

The Indicators Project and the first annual report were made possible through funding from UNC Charlotte, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, the Open Space Protection Collaborative (with funds from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation), and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Foundation For The Carolinas. The Project is also indebted to more than 100individuals, both external and internal to the university, who gave countless hours to making this report possible.

Note that all demographic and indicator statistics in the report are for the 14-county region unless otherwise noted. Note also that some indicators are based on county-level data that is itself a ratio and for which the actual number of cases or appropriate weighting values are not available to create a true regional average; thus the regional indicator is based on an un-weighted average of the county ratios, and is noted as such in the full report.