Funding: National Association of Regional Councils
Summary: This research expanded the Regional Information Clearinghouse (RIC), a national regional database created by the National Association of Regional Councils that partitions the entire United States into approximately 600 regions. The database appeared in 1998 with 21 Regional Quality of Life Indicators and other selected demographic indicators. The current work added the 2000 Census Short Form data and additional profiles for approximately 40 regions that overlap the 600-plus core regions. RIC enables a metropolitan or rural area to access regional data defined comparably across all regions, allowing them to answer questions such as how they compare to other regions on the selected data or to determine whether they are moving ahead or falling behind as compared to their peer regions.