The Indicators Framework 2000-2015

The Indicators Framework—a curated online catalogue of 350 measures of well-being in the Boston area—was the backbone of the Boston Indicators Project (as it was originally known) for the first 15 years of our work (2000-2015). Based on the contributions of hundreds of local thought leaders, the Framework articulated 70 shared civic goals and reported on change across 10 sectors: Civic Vitality, Cultural Life and the Arts, the Economy, Education, the Environment, Health, Housing, Public Safety, Technology and Transportation. The Framework was used in a real-time way to measure our progress as a city and inform important civic conversations.

But a lot has changed since 2000, with data much more readily available to the public online. So over the last couple of years we have been ramping down our emphasis on the Indicators Framework portion of our website, and moving forward we will no longer continue to update it. Instead, we are now devoting our expertise more towards data analysis and less on making data available. To ensure that our work informs active efforts to improve our city, we are producing articles, briefs, explainers, and data visualizations in close partnership with community groups, civic leaders and Boston’s civic data community.

Given the significance of the contributions of the original groundbreaking framework to the democratization of data, the original framework is preserved below. You can explore the original goals and measures in each of the ten sectors.