Vacancy rates in residential housing are a good barometer over time of the demand for shelter in a region. According to the Census, unoccupied housing units are considered vacant. Vacancy status is determined by the terms under which the unit may be occupied, e.g., for rent, for sale, or for seasonal use only. A housing... More
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Housing Vacancy Rates – Benchmark Regions
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Unemployment Rate
Sustainability
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Employment and Unemployment
The Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area’s unemployment rate — seasonally adjusted — decreased a total of 0.8 percentage points from July 2016 to July 2017 to 4.9 percent. Pittsburgh’s jobless rate was higher than the benchmark average of 3.7 percent and was the second-highest unemployment rate of all benchmark regions in July. This data comes from the U.S. Department of... More
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Travel Time Index
Sustainability
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Traffic Delay
Time lost in one year by an average traveler is an excellent measure of road congestion. The Urban Mobility Report measures average daily delays on key arterial roads during prime commuting hours. The data are compiled by the Texas Transportation Institute. The index on “travel time” is the difference between the time on a “normal”... More
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Miles Traveled per Capita
Sustainability
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Daily Vehicle Miles Traveled
This is a gauge both of energy usage as well as regional organization. The fewer the miles traveled, generally, the more effectively a region is organized. The data collected and published in the annual Highway Statistics is used by all levels of government and the public to assess the performance of the Nation’s highway transportation... More
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Census Population – Benchmark Regions
The Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area had 2,431,087 people in 2000; by 2010, that number was down by 74,802 to 2,356,285. Cleveland and Detroit also saw population declines over the decade. More
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Average Weekly Wages
Average weekly wages in the 7-county Pittsburgh metropolitan area in 2016 were $1,015, a year-over-year percent decrease of 0.4 percent. The region’s average weekly wages were below the benchmark average of $1,092. Pittsburgh was the only region to experience a year-over-year decline in average weekly wages among the benchmark regions. . More
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Average Annual Pay
Although Pittsburgh has trailed benchmark regions in average annual pay for many years, that gap is narrowing. Average annual pay increased by 3.6 percent between 2010 and 2011, 3.5 percent between 2011 and 2012 and 1.8 percent between 2012 and 2013, the largest year-over-year increase of all benchmark regions that year. Pittsburgh’s average annual pay... More
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Annual Educational Attainment
The ability of a region to successfully educate its residents is a vital measure of Sustainability. The data here give a rough picture of how local educational achievement levels compare in nine separate categories with other regions according to the latest data available from the American Community Survey. These are 1-year estimates for 2014. The... More
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Burglary Rate per 100K Population
Measures of crime indicate not only public safety, but also social cohesion. As such, crime is an important measure of sustainability. Burglary rates are a proxy for overall crime. Burglary is a property crime that also can indicate violent crime. Burglary rates for regions are consistently about half the rate of burglary for cities. The... More