How Insights scores are calculated

Before you start

• Scores exist at State, Metro, and County level only. City level lists indicators directly and has no scores, benchmarks, or strengths-and-weaknesses summary.
• Every score runs 0 to 100 and higher is always better, including for Risk Score — a high Risk Score means less exposure, not more.
• A score depends only on that location's own numbers. Loading more locations, filtering, or comparing never changes anyone's score.

How the scores are built

Each location gets five category scores — Cost Score, Workforce Score, Risk Score, Quality of Life Score, and Regulatory Score — plus a Composite Score that blends the five.

A category score is a weighted average of that category's metrics, after each metric is rescaled onto a 0-to-100 scale. The Composite Score then blends the five category scores, and the blend is not the same at every level:

So at Metro and County level, Workforce counts for more than Risk. At State level the five are equal.

Two things worth knowing before you read the tables below:

• The metrics that feed a score are not the same as the metrics shown under that heading in the detail panel. Median Household Income feeds the State Quality of Life Score even though it is listed under Site Screening, and Workers' Comp Rate feeds both the Cost Score and the Regulatory Score at Metro and County level.
• Some metrics are shown but score nothing. Population, Median Age, Poverty Rate, Freight Volume Index, Per Capita Income, Metro GDP, and Total Employment at county level are reference figures, not score inputs.

State: which metrics feed each score

Metro: which metrics feed each score

Avg Commute Time, Per Capita Income, and Metro GDP ($M) are shown in the Metro panel but feed no score.

The four Regulatory metrics come from the metro's state, not from the metro itself — the tab is labelled Regulatory (State) for exactly that reason.

County: which metrics feed each score

Population, Total Employment, and Per Capita Income are shown but feed no score.

Note that Health Percentile at County level runs the opposite way from Health Ranking at State and Metro level: at County level a higher number is healthier, at State and Metro level #1 is healthiest. See County and metro data quality.

Turning a raw number into a 0–100 score

Every scored metric goes through the same four steps.

Clamp to the scale range

A value below the bottom of the range is treated as the bottom; a value above the top is treated as the top. This is why two locations can both show 0 on the same metric: if the range for a State's Electricity Rate is 8–33 ¢/kWh, anything at or above 33 ¢ scores 0, whether it is 33 ¢ or 41 ¢. The same applies at the top end — both score 100.

Rescale to 0–100 and invert where lower is better

The clamped value becomes its position within the range, expressed as 0 to 100. For a "lower is better" metric the result is flipped, so the cheapest electricity or the fewest disaster declarations scores 100.

Substitute a fixed value for Right-to-Work

Right-to-Work is a yes/no fact, not a measurement, so it contributes a constant rather than a rescaled number: 70 for yes and 30 for no at State and Metro level, 72 and 32 at County level.

Average by weight, then round

The rescaled values are averaged using the weights in the tables above. State scores are rounded to one decimal place (for example 72.4); Metro and County scores are rounded to whole numbers. Comparison views round everything to whole numbers for display.

Score colours, ranks, and percentiles

Badge colours

Every score badge is coloured by the number alone, at every level:

A red badge means the score is under 35 on that dimension. It is not an error and it is not a data problem.

State rank and percentile

The State Benchmarks section reads Ranked #X of N states, where N is the number of states currently being served, and works out each row's rank by comparing that state against every other served state on the same metric (1 is always best, whichever direction the metric runs). The Nth pct pill next to a rank is (N − rank) ÷ (N − 1), expressed as a percentage, so the best-ranked state is at the 100th percentile and the worst is at 0. The nat'l figure on each row is the simple average of the served states.

County percentile

County Benchmarks show a percentile only — no rank. The percentile is the share of all U.S. counties in the current universe with a lower raw value on that metric, flipped for "lower is better" metrics so that a high percentile always reads as good. The header states the pool size, for example Percentile rank against 3,143 U.S. counties.

EDD percentile

For Economic Development Districts, the percentile compares a district's share of coded goals in a category against every other coded district — districts with no coded goals are not in the pool. See Explore EDD regions.

Why the same place scores differently at each level

A state's score and the score of a metro or county inside it are different numbers produced by different formulas, so they are not meant to match:

• The composite weights differ (equal fifths at State, Workforce 25% and Risk 15% at Metro and County).
• The scale ranges differ. Electricity is scaled 8–33 ¢/kWh at State, 8–30 at Metro, and 7–30 at County, so the same rate lands on a different 0–100 value at each level.
• The metrics differ. State Cost Score uses natural gas and health premiums; Metro and County Cost Scores use rent, home value, and either tax climate or cost of living instead.
• Right-to-Work contributes 70/30 at State and Metro but 72/32 at County.

Compare a location against others at the same level. Comparing a state's 72.4 with a metro's 68 is not a like-for-like comparison.

Where the written call-outs come from

The Insights cards, the Benchmarks rows, and the SWAT Analysis section are all generated by fixed rules from the numbers on screen. Nothing in these sections is written by an AI assistant, and the same location always produces the same wording from the same data. (The AI Analysis section on a City panel is likewise rule-based.)

SWAT Analysis — the heading in the product — is a standard SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Its rules are:

• Strength: any category score of 65 or more. Population growth above 5%, broadband access of 90% or more, or unemployment at or below 3.5% each add one.
• Weakness: any category score of 35 or less. Population decline beyond −1% or broadband access under 70% each add one.
• Threat: 15 or more FEMA disaster declarations in five years, a violent crime rate above 500 per 100k, or an electricity rate above 12 ¢/kWh.
• Opportunity: combinations of scores, for example a Cost Score of 60+ alongside a Workforce Score of 55+.

Empty quadrants read None identified. The Strategic Trade-off card above the quadrants compares the Cost Score with the Workforce Score and calls the location balanced when the two are within 8 points.

Common questions

Q: Is Workforce weighted more heavily than Risk in the Composite Score? A: At Metro and County level, yes — Workforce is 25% and Risk is 15%, with Cost, Quality of Life, and Regulatory at 20% each. At State level all five categories are weighted equally at 20%.

Q: Why does my state score 72.4 at state level but the metro inside it scores 68? A: They are different calculations. Each level has its own metric list, its own scaling ranges, and — for Metro and County — unequal composite weights. The two numbers are not comparable, and neither one is wrong. Compare locations only against others at the same level.

Q: Why is my score red? A: Score badges are coloured by value alone: green at 70 and above, blue at 50–69, amber at 35–49, and red below 35. A red badge means that dimension scored under 35 for that location; it is not a data error.

Q: Does a higher Risk Score mean more risk or less? A: Less. Every score in Insights runs so that higher is better, including Risk Score. A high Risk Score means fewer disaster declarations, better air quality, and a better health ranking.

Q: Two locations show a score of 0 on the same metric even though their raw numbers are very different. Why? A: Each metric is scaled against a fixed range, and values past the end of the range are treated as the end of the range. Anything at or beyond the worst end of the scale lands on 0, so two locations that are both well past that point score identically. The raw numbers in the detail panel still show the real difference.

Q: Can I change the weights to match my project? A: Not in Explore — the scores there always use the weights above. The Analyze area applies its own project-type weighting when it works out which locations you compete with. See Analyze your competitive set.

Q: Are the Insights cards and the SWAT Analysis written by AI? A: No. Every call-out in the Insights, Benchmarks, and SWAT Analysis sections is produced by fixed rules from the numbers already on the page, so the same data always produces the same wording.

Related

• Insights overview and data coverage
• Where Insights data comes from and how often it refreshes
• County and metro data quality
• Explore a location
• Compare locations