FAQ's

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What is a Community Profile?

A Community Profile provides an objective assessment of a community’s performance on key indicators of well-being. This assessment informs decision-making, helping community leaders, policymakers, funders, donors, planners and service providers to optimally leverage their resources.

How can I use the information?

A Community Profile can help decision-makers identify their community’s relative weaknesses and strengths, set priorities and evaluate program-related outcomes, track progress in key areas over time, compare regional trends to state and national benchmarks and foster community dialogue about top issues and challenges.

What geographic area is included in the project?

The profile presents data for the five-county region of Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady and Schoharie. Individual county data can be accessed on each indicator data table.

How old are the data?

Every attempt is made to capture the most recent and accurate data. Often data are released with multiple year delays, undergo revision, or are made public after the project is completed.

What are the sources of data?

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 table and charts of each indicator. Raw numbers were converted to rates and dollars were adjusted for inflation to provide a reasonable basis for comparisons.

Whom can I contact with questions?

The project is sponsored by the United Way of the Greater Capital Region. The data are gathered and analyzed by the Center for Governmental Research. Both organizations can be reached through the Contact Us page.

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