The Common Community Scorecard

The Common Community Scorecard

Defining Excellence in Community Performance

Consistent use of community metrics allows communities to establish priorities and guide and measure improvement. The indicators that form part of the Common Community Scorecard is a resource that provides comparisons amongst communities to compliment existing measures. This resource is part of a broader tool kit that can help establish or support your community balanced scorecard.

The five indicators have been chosen based on their long-term impact measurement and free access to data by any community in the United States, regardless of population size. They are a sampling of the highest-level indicators that demonstrate the interconnected and interdependent nature of the four core areas of communities:  Health and Safety, Educational Attainment, Economic Vitality, and Quality of Life. In addition, the five indicators selected meet the following key criteria:

1. Available at the neighborhood level (Census tract)
2. Connects to other indicators
3. Measure meaningful dimensions of community life, universal to all communities
4. Derived from a credible data source
5. Updated at consistent intervals
6. Comparable at the local, state, and national level

The Five Indicators

Click on the document icon below to download a summary of The Common Community Scorecard Indicators.

How to Access the Indicators

Data for each indicator can be accessed two ways:

Interactive Dashboard

Each indicator has a dedicated webpage. Adjustable filters will allow you to obtain the desired data. Instructions on how to use the Interactive Dashboards are available for each indicator. Click on the links below to access the Interactive Dashboards.

Health | Life Expectancy

Education | High School Graduation Rate

Economy | Median Household Income (under construction)

Quality of Life: Social and Community | Mental Health Status (under construction)

Quality of Life: Housing | Homes with Suboptimal Conditions (under construction)

Manually

Click on the document icon below to access instructions in the Common Community Scorecard Toolkit.

COMMON COMMUNITY SCORECARD TOOLKIT
Instructions for Accessing and Using Data Sources

This workbook, part of the Common Community Scorecard Toolkit, is a companion to the Communities of Excellence Framework and is designed to help you get to know your community’s story and understand its strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. This tool contains detailed instructions for accessing the data sources for each universal metric, as well as charts and graphs to assist with data visualization.  You are also not required to use this. It is simply a suggested working document that will provide you with the content needed for your National Learning Collaborative share outs of progress, community engagement communications, and annual applications to Communities of Excellence 2026 for feedback through the Assessment & Recognition Program.

INSTRUCTIONS: A worksheet is provided for each of the five universal metrics.  Select the tab for the metric you wish to update and follow the instructions provided.  For each metric a fully customizable data table and graph are provided, as well as the link to data source and detailed directions to access the data for your community.