Quality of Life

The Quality of Life Index (QoLI) database is a block group and higher level database that combines many different sources to show where the best places are to live and do business. The database consists of a main index derived from five sub-indexes: economic, health, community, leisure and physical environment. These sub-indexes are based upon specific variables within each category.

The indexes are presented in two separate forms, the first as a 0-1000 score, and the second as a standard 100 based index.

At the block group level, each specific variable is ordered and ranked for all block groups and given a value from zero to 1,000. The sub-indexes are averages of these ranks weighted by the importance of the specific variables. The main index is the weighted average of the sub-indexes as follows:

Economic: 30%
Health: 15%
Community: 21%
Leisure: 21%
Physical Environment: 13%

At higher geography levels, the specific variable ranks, the sub-indexes and the main QoLI are all weighted averages based on the populations of the contained block groups (or partially contained block groups).

In the index version, the scores at each geographic level are balanced to a weighted index of 100 nationwide.

Quality of Life is separated into the following subcategories: