Abstract
The Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project (MPIP) is a multidisciplinary research initiative that gathers and makes available data describing the Philadelphia Metropolitan Region. Comprised of 353 municipalities in nine counties that span Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the region is a rich and diverse area that has benefitted from the creation and growth of a social indicators project. To accurately characterize the region, identify changes and trends, and predict how the region might look in the future, MPIP gathers social indicators from an array of subject areas that include the economy, health, criminal justice, housing, and others. In efforts to see that its data are used effectively to benefit the region and influence policy, MPIP actively engages in partnerships with regional organizations by providing data, developing research methodology, and conducting analyses. This chapter describes the conception of MPIP, the composition of the region it serves, and the data and services provided by the Project. Additionally, the challenges encountered by MPIP are discussed, along with the projected future directions of the Project.
The principal investigators for the Metropolitan Indicators project are Carolyn Adams, David Bartelt, David Elesh, and Mark Mattson. Special thanks to Carolyn Adams and David Elesh for their contributions to this chapter.
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Thirteen variables were used: five housing, six socioeconomic, and two household characteristics. The housing variables were percent of units built before 1940, percent of units built after 1995, percent vacant, percent detached single units, and percent owner-occupied; the socioeconomic variables were percent black, percent with less than a high school education, percent with a bachelor’s degree or better, percent of persons less than 150% of the poverty line, percent working outside municipality of residence, and percent males unemployed; the household variables were percent of families with children under 18 and percent of families which were female-headed. The typology was validated through replication with an alternative statistical methodology and by sending it for “on the ground” checking by county planning officials. As a result of the latter, five of the communities were reclassified.
References
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Lockwood, B., Martin, J., Cao, C.Y., Schmitt, M. (2011). The Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project: Measuring a Diverse Region. In: Sirgy, M., Phillips, R., Rahtz, D. (eds) Community Quality-of-Life Indicators: Best Cases V. Community Quality-of-Life Indicators, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0535-7_7
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