Community Development Data & Tools

Gain deeper insight into the challenges communities are facing today with these community development data and tools from around the Federal Reserve.


Find tools and data sets to support your work in communities:

Credit & Debt

Community Credit: A New Perspective on America’s Communities

Interested in knowing what credit conditions are like in your community and elsewhere? The New York Fed’s Community Credit interactive maps highlight credit conditions in communities across the United States. The maps provide measures of credit inclusion and credit stress for the US., as well as for states and counties, from 2005 to 2018. Indicators include the percentage of quality borrowers and the percentage of residents who have access to some type of formal credit.

Data: National and state

Consumer Credit Explorer

The Philadelphia Fed’s Consumer Credit Explorer (CCE) tool helps you examine trends in consumer credit use at the regional, state, and national levels.

Data: National and state

Native American Financial Institutions Maps

Native American Financial Institutions Maps from the Minneapolis Fed’s Center for Indian Country Development show headquarter locations and asset sizes of banks and credit unions owned by, and community development financial institutions primarily serving, American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian individuals and communities.

Data: National and state

Student Loan Debt in the Bay Area: Interactive Maps

Explore student loan borrowing and repayment data from the San Francisco Bay Area in this series of interactive maps from the San Francisco Fed.

Data: San Francisco Bay Area (California)

Third Federal Reserve District Community Profiles

Visit this tool to identify credit and investment needs in your community as well as funding sources available to meet those needs, and organizations providing services to low- and moderate-income communities in each region.

Data: Regions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware

Employment

Anchor Economy Dashboard

Explore the economic impact of anchor institutions such as hospitals and higher education institutions in 524 regions across the US with this dashboard from the Philadelphia Fed. Explore results for your area, or by anchor employment, anchor income, or anchor gross value added. The reliance index demonstrates how dependent regional economies are on these institutions and provides a measure of the national average.

Data: National and state

Career Ladder Identifier and Financial Forecaster (CLIFF)

This suite of four tools from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta is designed to provide information about how benefits change with income gains.

  • CLIFF Dashboard (demo) demonstrates how public assistance losses intersect with local in-demand career paths.
  • CLIFF Planner (demo) is a career path planner and budgeting tool that shows how public assistance losses intersect with local in-demand career paths.
  • CLIFF Guaranteed Income (GI) Dashboard (demo) demonstrates the effect that receiving guaranteed income has on the receipt of public assistance. The dashboard is being used to inform prospective participants in guaranteed-income (GI) pilot programs about the possible implications of a guaranteed income on their eligibility for social safety net programs so they can make an informed decision about whether to enroll in a GI pilot.
  • Policy Rules Database (PRD) Dashboard (demo) helps you visualize how the dollar value and composition of public assistance changes with increases in income. It can be used to identify when wage gains make a family worse off or no better off financially than they were before the wage increase.

Data: National and state

Center for Human Capital Studies

As part of the U.S. central bank—which has a dual mandate to promote price stability and maximum employment—the Atlanta Fed has a natural interest in deepening its understanding of labor force dynamics and workforce development issues. The Center for Human Capital Studies supports those efforts through its research, as well as by offering such resources as conferences, seminars, and labor market tracking tools.

Data: National and state

Labor Market Equity Simulator

Imagine that racial and gender gaps no longer exist in the labor market. Would there be more shared prosperity in your state? For this thought experiment, Federal Reserve community development experts crunched the numbers for 15 years of data spanning 2005-2019. For every US state and Washington DC, they modeled how much gross domestic product (GDP) would have increased each year by eliminating racial and gender gaps in earnings, hours worked, educational attainment, and employment.

Data: National and state

Native American Labor Market Dashboard

Three of the most commonly used labor market metrics are the labor force participation rate, the employment-to-population ratio, and the unemployment rate. The Native American Labor Market Dashboard from the Minneapolis Fed’s Center for Indian Country Development provides these three metrics for the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) population. In doing so, it fills a gap in the published estimates that are available from the federal statistical agencies. Together, the metrics in the dashboard provide a timely assessment of how AI/AN workers are faring, which may differ substantially from the conditions of workers overall.

Data: National and state

Occupational Mobility Explorer

Across the nation’s largest 33 labor markets, 49 percent of lower-wage employment can be paired with at least one higher-paying occupation requiring similar skills. Visit this tool at the Philadelphia Fed’s website to identify pathways from a lower-paying occupation to similar, higher-paying occupations in the same labor market.

Data: Largest US metro labor markets

Opportunity Occupations Monitor

The Atlanta Fed’s interactive data tool identifies well-paying jobs across various educational requirement levels in states and metro areas. The monitor separates occupations into labor market groups based on entry-level educational requirements by employers. It also provides geographic-specific information on occupations, including total employment, median salary, and percent of monthly income needed for median regional housing costs.

Data: National and state

SF Fed Data Explorer

Explore, analyze, and download detailed data for various groups of people in the U.S. labor market. The data come from responses to the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS), a joint program of the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics. Use the Data Explorer to dive deep into the survey results and discover your own insights.

Data: National and state

Unemployment Claims Monitor

The Atlanta Fed’s tool displays national and state data on unemployment claims. It provides a view of initial and continued claims, demographic information on claimants, and claimants’ industries. The tool also has information on special unemployment programs for furloughed workers, veterans, and federal workers, among others. It is updated weekly with U.S. Department of Labor data.

Data: National and state

Unemployment Insurance Claim Rates as a Share of Workforce (2019 – 2021)

Unemployment in the US shifted between extreme highs and lows since the onset of COVID-19. But how has it impacted New England’s different industries, communities, and residents? This tool from the Boston Fed gives a month-by-month, state-by-state breakdown of the continuing unemployment insurance claims (also called unemployment benefits) filed across New England. It breaks down the population that continued to file claims by state, industry, gender, age, and race and ethnicity.

Data: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine

Equitable Development

A Banker’s Quick Reference Guide to CRA

The Dallas Fed provides a quick reference guide to the Community Reinvestment Act regulation and examination procedures.

Banking Deserts Dashboard

Discover banking deserts and potential ones using the Banking Deserts dashboard. This interactive dashboard provides census tract-level data of states and counties from 2019-2023.

Data: National and state

Center for Indian Country Development

Through its Center for Indian Country Development, the Minneapolis Fed works to help self-governing communities of American Indians in the United States attain their economic development goals. The Center promotes partnerships, research, and coordination around four focus areas that are essential for building vibrant economies: governance, infrastructure, finance, and resources. Tools include Reservation profiles and a Native American financial institution map.

Data: Indian Country

Community Investment Explorer

The St. Louis Fed’s Community Investment Explorer 2.0 aggregates over 73 million transactions totaling over $3.2 trillion in community and economic development capital from 2012 to 2020 across 10 programs. Explore the interactive maps to learn where capital is going, how equitably is it being distributed, and for what purposes is it serving.

Data: National and state

Disruptions from Wildfire Smoke: 12th District Data Portal and Regional Snapshots

In Fall 2022, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco published Disruptions from Wildfire Smoke: Vulnerabilities in Local Economies and Disadvantaged Communities in the U.S. The report described increasing wildfire smoke trends across the entire country, including communities located far from fires. The research found that the Twelfth Federal Reserve District, served by the SF Fed, was distinctly impacted. Wildfire smoke can interrupt business and has important economic implications, including increased occupational hazards for outdoor workers, school closures, and increased costs for renters and homeowners.

The tool developed by the San Francisco Fed allows users to investigate wildfire smoke and disadvantaged communities more closely.

Data: California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona

Equitable Growth Indicators (EGIs)

The New York Fed’s Equitable Growth Indicators (EGIs) measure disparities in macroeconomic outcomes experienced by different demographic, economic, and geographic groups. The EGIs provide insight into disparities across four economic outcomes—inflation, real and nominal earnings, employment, and real and nominal consumer spending. The demographic and economic groups include race/ethnicity, age, veteran status, education and income. The geographic groups include urban/rural status, U.S. census regions, majority minority areas and low-income areas.

Data: National

Income Based Economic Index (IBEX)

The Chicago Fed’s IBEX is a series of economic statistics that measure the economic experience of particular income and demographic groups. The IBEX groups include the elderly and the working poor, as well as groupings by education, income quartile and race.  The “IBEX 12 Month Inflation Rates” provide a monthly chain-weighted inflation measure for more than 30 socio-economic and demographic groups and overall urban population; the “IBEX Consumer Sentiment (IBEX-CS)” provides a monthly and quarterly index of consumer sentiment for 46 groups and the overall urban population.

Data: National

Income Distributions and Dynamics in America

The Minneapolis Fed’s Income Distributions and Dynamics in America dataset is a powerful resource for advancing our understanding of incomes across America. The project combines data from U.S. tax forms with demographic information from U.S. Census Bureau records to provide statistics on income growth, income mobility, and income inequality for groups defined by place, race, ethnicity, and age.

Data: National

Peer City Identification Tool

Peer cities are cities that are experiencing similar trends or challenges. Identifying a city’s peers can give needed context to policymakers and practitioners. The Peer City Identification Tool (PCIT), developed by the Community Development and Policy Studies (CDPS) division of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, is a data comparison and visualization instrument that can help you understand a municipality in the context of peer cities. The tool stems from the Industrial Cities Initiative (ICI), a study that profiled ten Midwestern cities with manufacturing legacies, describing how they have fared in socioeconomic terms over time.

Data: National

Plan. Prepare. Prevail. A Disaster Financial Readiness & Recovery Blueprint

The Kansas City Fed provides financial forms, checklists and other resources to help consumers and small business owners prepare before and recover after disaster strikes. These resources were developed from a series of focus groups and meetings held in the tenth district.

Third District Regional Economic Growth and Mobility Dashboard

The dashboard organizes the metrics from the Third Federal Reserve District into issue areas that include overall prosperity, quality job creation, education and workforce development, and infrastructure and affordable housing.

Data: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)

Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) Interactive Charts

These interactive charts draws from the Federal Reserve Board’s annual Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, (SHED), which examines the economic well-being and financial lives of US adults and their families.

Data: National

Housing

A Map of Racially Restrictive Covenants in the City of Philadelphia

Where people live influences their job opportunities, schools, health, and wealth-building. Housing not only affects the economic well-being of individuals and families but also has a major impact on the regional and US economy. Take an interactive look at the impact of discriminatory real estate practices on the people and economy of Philadelphia.

Data: Philadelphia (Pennsylvania)

Chicago Fed’s Foreclosure Maps

The Chicago Fed’s Community Development and Policy Studies Department (CDPS) has developed a series of maps to identify areas in the Seventh Federal Reserve District facing the highest rates of foreclosure and mortgage delinquency. The maps show county-level data as of October 2016 for each of the five states in the District (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin) as well as zip code-level data for the largest county in each state.

Data: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin

Home Mortgage Explorer

The Home Mortgage Explorer draws from publicly available Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data and enables users to explore trends in residential mortgage lending between 2010 and 2017 for national, state, metropolitan, and nonmetropolitan geographies. The Explorer includes information on the number of originated mortgages, application denial rates, and the reasons given by lenders for denying applications. Trends can be examined by loan type (e.g., conventional, Federal Housing Administration) and loan purpose (e.g., home purchase, refinance), and all measures are provided by applicant and neighborhood income.

Data: National and state

Home Ownership Affordability Monitor

Home ownership helps meet the basic need of shelter and can support economic mobility (through wealth accumulation) and resilience (stability). However, rising home prices and rents have also led to concerns about housing affordability. The Atlanta Fed’s HOAM (Home Ownership Affordability Monitor) Index measures the ability of a median-income household to absorb the estimated annual costs associated with owning a median-priced home.

Data: National and state

Minneapolis Housing Indicators Dashboard

The Minneapolis Fed’s Housing Indicators Dashboard monitors ten housing-related outcomes from the City of Minneapolis’ Minneapolis 2040 comprehensive plan and associated policy changes, as well as relevant information that provides context on how these outcomes vary across Minneapolis neighborhoods and compare to peer cities.

Data: Minneapolis (Minnesota)

Mortgage Analytics and Performance Dashboard

The Mortgage Analytics and Performance Dashboard (MAPD) from the Atlanta Fed gives policymakers at the national, state, and local levels the ability to see where owner-occupant homeowners in their jurisdictions have fallen behind on mortgage payments or used mortgage forbearance as a means of economic relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data: National and state

Rental Housing Affordability Tool

The Rental Housing Affordability data tool from the Philadelphia Fed helps you to examine trends in rental housing affordability in Third District states (Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) and select surrounding areas from 2011 to 2018.

Data: Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania

Southeastern Rental Affordability Tracker

With this tool from the Atlanta Fed, communities looking to increase their supply of affordable housing and achieve a better balance of housing options at all rent levels can use this tracker to help define housing affordability challenges by exploring the availability of affordable rentals and presence of cost-burdened renter households in their area.

Data: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee

Small Business

Resources for Businesses and Growth in Detroit

This web page provides links to policy studies; banking and credit data; outreach and presentations and can be used to leverage resources for businesses in the Detroit region and support strategies to attract investment to the city. Created by the Chicago Fed’s Community Development and Policy Studies (CDPS) Division.

Data: Detroit (Michigan)

Small Business Credit Survey

The Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey (SBCS) includes small business research and analysis by the 12 Reserve Banks of the Federal Reserve System. SBCS is a national sample of small businesses, or firms with fewer than 500 employees, aimed at providing insight into firms’ financing and debt needs and experiences. Analysis of this dataset is issued through a series of reports and chartbooks.

Data: National