County and metro data quality
What to trust in county and metro figures: which county values are modelled rather than measured, why county regulatory fields and electricity rates match the state, why most metros show a dash for two health metrics, why a whole state can vanish from the map, and where coverage stops.
Before you start
- This page is about how much weight to put on a given number before it goes into a client deliverable, a board pack, or a pitch. The sources and cadences themselves are in Where Insights data comes from and how often it refreshes.
- Nothing described here is a fault you can fix from inside the product. It is a description of what the underlying data does and does not publish.
County values: measured where published, modelled where not
Federal and state publishers cover counties unevenly. Some release a figure for all 3,000-plus counties; others cover only the counties that happen to have a reporting agency or an air-quality monitor.
Insights handles that county by county and field by field:
- Where a source publishes a value for a county, that measured value is what you see.
- Where no source publishes one, the county shows a modelled value derived from its state's profile and the county's own urban/rural character. The figure is stable — the same county always shows the same number — but it is a model output, not an observation.
The product does not label which is which on screen. Treat a county figure as indicative when you are screening a long list, and verify it against the named source before it appears in a document a client will rely on.
Fields with the widest measured coverage at county level are population, unemployment, education, wages, employment, income, housing, broadband, and health. The fields most likely to be modelled for a smaller county are violent crime (only counties with an agency reporting a complete year are measured) and air quality (the EPA monitors roughly a third of U.S. counties).
Why a county's regulatory metrics don't match its state
Tax Climate Rank, Economic Freedom, Right-to-Work, and Workers' Comp are state-level concepts with no county equivalent, so every county in a state shows the same four values.
They are not, however, read from the live state row. County level uses a stored state-level reference set, so a county's Tax Climate Rank can differ by a place or two from the rank the same state shows at State level after the state figure has been updated. If the two disagree, the State view's figure is the current one.
Why a county's electricity rate equals its state's
No publisher releases a retail electricity rate at county grain. Every county therefore carries its state's latest commercial rate. Cost of Living Index works the same way: it is published per metro area and per state, and counties inherit whichever applies.
At Metro level, two metrics are treated identically — Elec Rate (¢/kWh) and Violent Crime Rate are the state's figure applied to every metro in that state.
This is why a county or metro can show exactly the same electricity rate as its state, and why neighbouring counties in the same state never differ on it. It is correct behaviour, not a copy-and-paste error.
Why most metros show a dash for two metrics
County Health Ranking and Physicians per 10k have no metro-level publisher. Rather than invent a number, Insights carries curated values for 34 large metros only; every other metro shows — on those two rows.
Two consequences are worth knowing:
- A metro with a dash is not missing data through an error. Nothing is available to show.
- Those two metrics feed the Risk Score and the Quality of Life Score. When they are absent the score is averaged over the metrics that are present, so a metro outside the 34 has its Risk and Quality of Life scores computed from fewer inputs than one inside it. See How Insights scores are calculated.
Every other metro metric is genuinely metro-grained, and every Metropolitan Statistical Area with a complete set of the required metrics is served — not just the large ones.
Health Ranking means something different at each level
The same idea is published two different ways, and Insights keeps the publisher's own direction at each level:
| Level | Label shown | Meaning | Best value |
|---|---|---|---|
| State | Health Ranking | Rank among the 50 states | #1 |
| Metro | County Health Ranking | Rank within the state | #1 |
| County | Health Percentile | Percentile against U.S. counties | 99 |
So a county showing 88 is in good health, while a state showing 88 is close to the bottom of the national ranking. Scores handle the difference correctly; it is only the raw number in the detail panel that can look contradictory.
Why a state can be missing from the map entirely
A state is served only when its snapshot covers all 26 required metrics. If a single one is missing, the state is left out of the map, the table, the filters, and every comparison for that refresh cycle, rather than appearing with a gap that would quietly distort its scores.
You can tell when this has happened: the Benchmarks section of any state reads Ranked #X of N states, and N is the number of states currently served. If N is below 50, at least one state is missing that cycle. Metros work the same way — a metro with an incomplete snapshot is not served.
Coverage outside the 50 states
| Geography | Where it appears |
|---|---|
| The 50 states | State, Metro, County, and City levels |
| Washington, D.C. | City level and Incentives only |
| Puerto Rico | EDD regions only, and without a map shape |
| Other U.S. territories | Not covered |
Washington, D.C. is not a state row, has no county row, and has no metro row of its own — the Washington metro is served through Virginia. D.C. places do appear at City level, though they have no parent county to inherit county-level indicators from, so their More indicators section is empty. D.C. is a full jurisdiction in Incentive Intelligence, which covers 51 jurisdictions.
Connecticut's planning regions
Connecticut replaced its counties with planning regions in 2022, and the two geographies are working their way through federal publications at different speeds. In practice this means Connecticut county rows can carry less measured data than counties elsewhere, and a Connecticut Economic Development District may be listed in the EDD table and search without a shape on the map. Treat Connecticut county figures with extra care.
Common questions
Q: Are county numbers real data or estimates? A: Both, field by field. Where a source publishes a county figure, that measured value is what you see. Where none does, the county shows a stable modelled value derived from its state and the county's urban/rural character. The product does not mark which is which, so verify a county figure against its named source before putting it in a client document.
Q: My county's electricity rate is exactly the same as the state's — is that right? A: Yes. No publisher releases retail electricity rates at county grain, so every county carries its state's latest commercial rate. The same applies to metros, and to metro-level violent crime.
Q: Why does Texas show a different Tax Climate Rank in the county view than in the state view? A: The four regulatory metrics at County level come from a stored state-level reference set rather than the live state row, so they can lag the State view by a revision. Where the two differ, the State view holds the current figure.
Q: Why do most metros show "—" for County Health Ranking and Physicians per 10k, but Dallas has a value? A: Neither metric is published at metro grain. Curated values exist for 34 large metros; every other metro leaves both rows blank rather than showing a fabricated number. Those two metrics also drop out of that metro's Risk and Quality of Life scores, which are then averaged over the remaining inputs.
Q: Why is my state missing from the map entirely? A: A state is only served when all 26 of its required metrics are present for that refresh cycle. One missing metric removes the whole state rather than serving a partial row. Check the Ranked #X of N states line in any state's Benchmarks section — if N is under 50, some states are out this cycle.
Q: Why does my county show a disaster count I don't recognise? A: Disaster declarations are counted from the federal declaration record for the trailing five years, and a county with no declarations in that window is recorded as zero rather than left blank. If a county's count still looks wrong, check whether the declarations you are thinking of were statewide rather than county-specific, or fell outside the five-year window.
Q: Is Washington, D.C. or Puerto Rico anywhere in Insights? A: D.C. appears at City level and as a full jurisdiction in Incentives, but not as a state, metro, or county. Puerto Rico appears only in the EDD regions overlay, and its districts have no map shape — they are reachable through search and the table. No other U.S. territory is covered.
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