About the institute
Commerce Institute publishes place-level research, indices, datasets, and tools for journalists, researchers, businesses, and curious people. Every metric on every page links to the methodology that defines it.
Every fact you see on Commerce Institute traces back to a primary federal data source: the U.S. Census, BEA, BLS, NOAA, FHFA, IRS, NHTSA, USDA, USGS, CDC, and 26 others. We do not run our own surveys. We do not buy proprietary scoring. We do not source from commercial data brokers.
For each metric, we publish a methodology page that defines the formula, identifies the source data, and links the SQL or Python that produces it. Our entire data warehouse is queryable. Replication packages for every published index live on GitHub under an MIT license.
When a field cannot be sourced, it does not render. We do not invent mayors. We do not make up "newspapers of record." We do not assemble place character profiles by generative prose. If we cannot back it up with a queryable federal source, the field is absent.
Commerce Institute is operated by TOTIB Technologies LLC, a New York for-profit company. We are not a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We do not accept donations. We do not run display advertising. Our revenue comes from API subscriptions, dataset licensing, and custom data analysis.
This is the same structure used by Gartner, Forrester, and the McKinsey Global Institute — for-profit research firms whose findings are routinely cited by newspapers, regulators, and academic literature. Authority comes from how the research is done — methodology transparency, named editorial standards, reproducible data — not from the entity type.
Editorial firewall. Methodology decisions are not influenced by API subscribers, dataset licensees, or consulting clients. We will not modify a published metric to favor a customer. If a customer disputes a number, we publish the dispute and the resolution.
If at any point foundation funding (Knight, Pew, MacArthur) becomes a primary path or our authority signal requires it, we will spin up a sister 501(c)(3) entity that holds the methodology + dataset releases at arm's length. That option is open; we are not pursuing it on day one because it would slow us down by 12 to 18 months for no current benefit.
Commerce Institute is in early operation. The masthead is small by design — we'll grow it as we publish.
Advisory board
Recruiting. We are seeking a retired Census Bureau or BEA economist, a working data journalist, and an academic economist with regional analysis expertise. Inquiries to advisors@commerceinstitute.org.