How are cities, states and regions in the United States measuring progress? What is being measured and who is doing the measuring?

The State of the USA, founded in 2007 with a focus on key national indicators, builds on the work of existing indicator efforts active across the country. Many of these are part of a national network known as the Community Indicators Consortium, a State of the USA partner.

The interactive map below lists more than 100 indicator systems set up by cities, counties, states and regions across the nation. Each bubble contains a list of local indicator systems.

View Grassroots Efforts Tracking Progress Nationwide in a larger map

Local and Regional Efforts

On the local level, the Boston Indicators Project and Pittsburgh Today feature indicators and analysis of subject areas ranging from the arts to transportation. Some indicator systems, such as the Calhoun County Community Report Card, track progress at the county level through a series of annual reports.

Virginia Performs measures what matters to Virginians across the entire state. The South Carolina Indicators Project ranks the state's progress and compares South Carolina with other states in the southeast. Other efforts, including Northwest Area Foundation's indicators system, measure progress across a broad swath of the nation.

The map below shows the distribution of local indicator systems across the 50 states. Each black dot represents a community indicator system.

Nationwide Efforts

In addition to the State of the USA, there are a number of systems that specialize in issues that affect the nation as a whole. These efforts focus on the following subject areas:

Aging

• AgingStats.Gov, Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics: Older Americans 2008: Key Indicators of Well-Being
• AARP's State of 50+ America
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Merck Foundation's, The State of Aging and Health in America 2007

Children

• ChildStats.gov, America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2006

Civic Engagement

• Volunteering in America: 2007 State Trends and Rankings in Civic Life

Environmental

• The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, The State of the Nation's Ecosystems

Health

• Department of Health and Human Service's "Healthy People 2010"

Science and Engineering

• National Science Foundation's Science and Engineering Indicators 2006

Interactive map by Anthony Calabrese, a State of the USA Web producer.