2010
Routt County Livability Index
What is the Routt County Livability Index?
The Routt County Livability Index is a decision support tool.
It allows for the measurement of "livability" annually. It identifies those areas where progress is being made or maintained and areas where we need to be vigilant and allocate resources to improve.
The Routt County Livability Index (the "Index") compares Routt County's livability to other mountain communities in Colorado that have social/economic and demographic similarities. This comparison is done in order to provide context to changes that occur over time.
Combined with Routt County, the counties are referred to throughout the Index as "Core Counties". Although different in many aspects, each county shares some of the same challenges Routt County is experiencing.
By monitoring Routt County compared to these other communities over time, we can better identify the areas where we can influence change locally with our policies and actions.
What is the difference between Indexing and Ranking?
Both indexing and ranking involve tracking of consistently measured data. Ranking, however, compares unique data sets to each other periodically, whereas indexing measures the change of comparable data sets to each other over time. It is the change factor of indexing that gives an accurate view of Routt County's position relative to the other comparable counties. Indexing is an excellent tool to monitor change.
In order to create an index that is accurate and useful over time, a baseline index value of 1.000 was is established. This baseline was established beginning with the 2008 Index. In future years, the Index will not only show the change occurring between counties but also the relative rate of change that is occuring between the comparable counties.change. As more data is collected over time, the more useful the Index will become as a tool to guide decisions in those areas we value.
To illustrate this, in 2008 Routt County was assigned a value of 1.00 for all measurements. If in 2010, Routt County should decrease by 5 percent, essentially becoming "worse" the Index value would be 0.95. If the county should increase by 5 percent essentially becoming "better", the index would be 1.05.
2010 represents the third year the Livability Index has been published. The increases or decreases in the index value represents the change that has occurred since the baseline data was established in 2008.
What is the currency and frequency of the data used in the Livability Index?
The Index primarily uses secondary sources of data from federal and state agencies. Using secondary data sources keeps the cost low of developing the Livability Index annually. The data used reflects the most current data available for the period during which the index is being calculated. It is recognized that there is an inherent lag in secondary data; however, when used in comparison to similar counties it serves to identify trends that are currently occurring.
