The Data for Development series was built around a simple observation: economic developers love data, but the data is hard to find, expensive to get, and even harder to turn into actionable insights. These dashboards compile sources across BLS, Census, EIA, NCES, EPA, and other public agencies — crunched, visualized, and made interactive so you can get to the answer without spending a week in Excel.

Each dashboard tackles one of the top location decision factors identified in Area Development's annual survey of corporate executives and site consultants. The question each one answers is the same question your clients are asking.

Data for Development Series

The dashboards

Compensation & Operating Costs
Labor Costs
Benchmark 100+ U.S. metros across three definitions of labor cost — from raw wages to fully-loaded compensation to after-tax operating cost.
"Where can I find the labor I need at a cost my business model can support?"
Talent & Workforce
Skilled Labor
Educational attainment, university presence, graduate production by major, and alumni mobility across 383+ metros — where talent is and where it goes.
"Does this market have the talent pipeline my industry needs — and is it growing or draining?"
Energy Infrastructure
Energy Availability & Costs
Utility rates by end use, renewable share of generation, state-level power mix, energy production by source, and grid reliability metrics across U.S. markets.
"What will energy actually cost my operation here — and how reliable is the grid?"
Utility Contracts
Power Contracts
Average rates tell you the ballpark. This dashboard layers specific contract terms from OpenEI on top of EIA rate data for side-by-side utility comparison.
"Beyond average rates — what contractual terms are actually available in each market?"
Community Livability
Quality of Life
Three independent indices — Sharecare Well-Being, AARP Livability, and EDai's adjustable scoring — compared across 100+ metros simultaneously.
"How does my community stack up as a place people actually want to live?"
Incentives & Tax Policy
Incentives Catalog
State and local economic development incentive programs — searchable, filterable, and comparable across geographies. The starting point for any incentives conversation.
"What incentive programs are available here — and how do they compare to what's on offer elsewhere?"
Location Scoring
Competitiveness Report
Min-max scalar scoring across 100+ variables — the same methodology powering the EDai Location Scoring engine, in an explorable visual format across 383+ metros.
"How competitive is this community — and which factors are driving that score?"
Logistics & Transportation
Shipping Costs
Ocean, air, rail, and truck freight cost estimates by metro — using Freightos ocean data and DOT revenue-per-ton-mile calculations from commodity production hotspots.
"How does this market's position affect what I'll pay to move goods in and out?"

Built on the same data frameworks used by leading economic development consultants.

Every dashboard in this series draws on publicly available data from federal agencies — BLS, Census, EIA, EPA, NCES, and others. The methodology mirrors the analytical frameworks used in major consulting engagements, made self-serve and free.

The series is ongoing. New dashboards covering additional location factors — infrastructure, industry strengths, competitiveness — are in development.

7
Live interactive dashboards
383+
U.S. metros benchmarked
10+
Federal data sources compiled
Free
No login, no paywall, no catch