Sacramento
‘people’ rank high
in the Regional Prosperity Index
The Sacramento
Regional Research Institute, a joint venture of SACTO and Sacramento State,
released its 2006 Prosperity Index results analyzing critical economic indicators
that affect the region’s long-term prosperity and competitiveness around
the categories of Business, People and Place.
“Although the Sacramento
Region experienced a slight decline in the People component from last year’s
Index, the 2006 Index continues to demonstrate the strength of the Sacramento
Region’s people—a critical building block to the overall prosperity
of a region. Further strengthening the region’s competitive position requires
that we sustain a strong People component and make improvements in the areas
of Business and Place,” said Sacramento State economics professor and
Sacramento Regional Research Institute economist Suzanne O’Keefe.
The Sacramento Region ranked
eighth on the 2006 Prosperity index, receiving a 7.1 out of a possible 10 overall.
Sacramento posted a high score on the People component but a fairly low score
on the Business and Place components which placed the region in the middle of
the list.
The Prosperity Index was
introduced in 2005 as part of SACTO’s five-year business attraction and
marketing plan entitled Building a First-Tier Economy, and as an outcome of
Partnership for Prosperity’s regional economic development strategic planning
process. It provides business and community leaders with a tool to measure regional
economic prosperity and track the region’s performance against competitor
regions in order to evaluate the competition and identify opportunities for
improvement. The index reveals how well the Sacramento Region stacks up against
its competitors—where it excels and where it falls short.
“Even in the short
time since it was introduced, the Prosperity Index has proven to be a valuable
tool in evaluating and guiding the region’s economic development strategies.
Economic development partners and policy developers are better able to benchmark
the Sacramento Region against the competition, set measurement targets and measure
progress,” said Jeff Koewler, SACTO’s 2006-07 Chair.
The Sacramento
Regional Research Institute updates the Prosperity Index on an annual basis.
The Business component is evaluated on a quarterly basis throughout the year
with results appearing in SACTO’s Quarterly Economic Report. For the 2006
Index and for future updates, visit SRRI’s web site at www.srri.net. The
2006 Prosperity Index is sponsored by Los Rios Community College District, McDonough
Holland & Allen PC, Sacramento Works and Wells Fargo & Company.
About the
SRRI Prosperity Index:
Indicators or “characteristics” within three main categories are
analyzed, measured and assigned a score from 0 to 10. They include Business
(measured indicators: establishment growth, job growth, office vacancy rate,
payroll growth, unemployment rate, venture capital investment); People (measured
indicators: college enrollment, educational attainment, graduation rate, median
household income, household income spread, population growth); and Place (measured
indicators: air quality, charitable contributions, commute time, crime rate,
fair market rent growth, housing affordability). The three categories are aggregated
to create the Prosperity Index. All indicators used in the project reflect a
balance of historical, current and future performance.
Criteria
for indicators include the following:
They must be a key characteristic in describing Business, People or Place overall;
comparative data must be available nationally from sources that provide consistent
methodology across regions and over time; and indicators must have a relation
to aspects that regional communities can influence or directly affect.
About the
selection of competitor regions:
In addition to the national average, ten competitor regions were chosen as benchmarks.
The competitor regions are those that the Sacramento Region most often competes
with for corporate site locations. Half of the regions are located in California
and the other half are scattered throughout the western United States. They
include Austin, TX; San Francisco Bay Area, CA; Denver, CO; Inland Empire (Riverside/San
Bernardino), CA; Los Angeles, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Portland, OR; Reno, NV; Salt
Lake City, UT; and San Diego, CA.
