The project is divided into four main topics: basic needs, family supports, financial stability and literacy. Within each topic are specific indicators, each with data displayed in tables and charts, analysis, and information about data definitions, limitations of the data, and sources. Each main topic also has an overview section summarizing key trends and highlights of the data.

Approach to Creating the Indicators

The Center for Governmental Research (CGR) collected and analyzed the best available data from national, state, county and local agencies. Whenever possible, CGR used New York State sources for data rather than data from local sources to ensure consistent definitions and reporting and to enable consistent and reliable comparisons across counties. The data sources are listed on the data tables and charts for each indicator. Raw numbers were converted to rates and dollars were adjusted for inflation to 2007 dollars to provide a reasonable basis for comparisons.

Interpreting Data

In order to suggest that a trend exists there must be a clear pattern of consistent movement in the same direction over several years. Caution should be exercised in drawing conclusions based on fluctuations in data from one year to the next. Such one-year fluctuations, even if substantial, typically are not sufficiently reliable for planning and assessment purposes.

In some cases, CGR was not able to obtain data for the entire state. Data for New York City, in particular, were not always available. In those cases, CGR presented a figure for the state excluding New York City and noted this in the indicator narrative, chart and data tables. Users should note that this calls for a different interpretation of comparisons among the region, its component counties and the state.

Where possible, CGR included widely accepted benchmarks against which regional data can be judged. For example, for several health indicators, targets from the national Healthy People 2010 program are included.

The American Community Survey

This project uses data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey covering the three years spanning 2005 through 2007. These data are used to describe and track characteristics of the population – including income, poverty, educational attainment and more – that used to be collected only during the decennial census. The bureau combined three years of responses to the survey to provide estimates for smaller geographic areas (those with 20,000 or more residents) and to increase the precision of its estimates.

However, because the information came from a survey, the samples responding to the survey were not always large enough to produce reliable results. CGR decided not to report results where the coefficient of variation (a measure of the amount of potential error in an estimate from a survey) was higher than 25%. This is a higher standard than that recommended by the Census Bureau, which suggested a cutoff of 50%. This means that particularly for indicators providing breakdowns for racial and ethnic groups, data are not reported for every group for every county.