Data dictionary

Every source, every refresh date.

Commerce Institute draws from 7 federal and public-domain data sources. Each one shows its current vintage, when we last ingested it, and what metrics it powers.

Source Vintage Cadence Status License Metrics
BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics
US Bureau of Labor Statistics
2025 monthly ● fresh Public Domain 4 metrics
Census ACS 5-Year Estimates
US Census Bureau
2022 annual ● fresh Public Domain 14 metrics
Census County Business Patterns
US Census Bureau
2022 annual ● fresh Public Domain 10 metrics
County-Level Presidential Returns 2008-2024
tonmcg GitHub mirror (originally MIT Election Lab)
2024 every_4_years ● fresh Public Domain (federal election results) 8 metrics
IRS Statistics of Income Migration Data
Internal Revenue Service
2022 annual ● fresh Public Domain 8 metrics
Zillow Home Value Index (smoothed, seasonally adjusted, mid-tier)
Zillow Research
2025 monthly ● fresh Free for non-commercial research; commercial use requires Zillow approval 2 metrics
NOAA Climate Normals 1991-2020 (Monthly)
NOAA NCEI
2020 one_time Public Domain 5 metrics

How freshness works

Every place page footer shows the "as of" date for each metric. Methodology pages link back to this table.