About this Site

• Purpose of the Website
• Information for Regions
• Why Look at Regions?
• About the Data

Purpose of the Website

The Carsey Institute's Regional Indicators Site allows interactive access to socio-economic indicators for urban and rural parts of the nation. Our aim is to provide an easy-to-use website with regional analyses that give policymakers, community development practitioners, researchers, and the general public a better understanding of rural issues. Informative and interactive, the website allows users to search on specific rural-relevant indicators of well-being, as well as to create tables and maps that can be used in reports and presentations. .

Information for Regions

Data on this website are shown for the nation's four regions and nine divisions, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau:

• Northeast Region
  1. New England Division
  2. Middle Atlantic Division
• Midwest Region
  3. East North Central Division
  4. West North Central Division
• South Region
  5. South Atlantic Division
  6. East South Central Division
  7. West South Central Division
• West Region
  8. Mountain Division
  9. Pacific Division

Why Look at Regions?

Social and economic conditions vary from region to region and from rural to urban areas. For example, here are some of the variations that show up on the regional indicators website:

• In the Northeast, child poverty rates are high here, especially in Middle Atlantic central cities. Population growth rates are low.

• In the Midwest, population growth rates are low, especially in nonmetropolitan areas. Nevertheless, the Midwest has some of the lowest rates of poverty in the nation.

• In the South, per capita and median household income levels tend to be low and poverty rates tend to be high, especially in rural areas.

• In the West, population growth and job growth are high, especially in metropolitan areas in the Mountain states. Nonmetropolitan job growth in this region is higher than in any other region, and higher than metropolitan areas across the country.

About the Data

This website provides indicators related to population characteristics, income and poverty, employment, family and kids, and education. The data come from two major sources: the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).