CIC First Fridays Coffee Break: Cost of Living as a Community Indicator

CIC First Fridays Coffee Break: Cost of Living as a Community Indicator

Grab a cup of coffee (or tea), take a break, and click here to watch!

Cost of living represents the more physical, material aspect of life but with implications for quality of life. The cost to live in one city versus another is something that impacts us all when we consider job offers, relocating, purchasing power and affordability calculations, and where we want to grow roots. The C2ER Cost of Living Index is a widely used measure of the geographic differences in the cost of consumer goods and services. How is this data collected and calculated? What does it mean for community indicators conversations and for policy makers? Join the CIC First Friday Coffee Break to learn more about this dataset and if your city is represented.

Jennie Allison serves as Program Manager for the Cost of Living Index (COLI). She coordinates the collection of and compiles all the data provided from volunteers in nearly 400 communities from metro and micropolitan areas throughout the United States, manages subscriber correspondence, and methodically works to enhance both the quality of the data gathered and the form which it is presented to the end user. Under her supervision, the final survey response rate has exceeded 70 percent in each of the past nine quarters.

Questions? Comments? Either drop your question below in the Comments section or email your questions to lwinkler@crec.net.