Our region is at a critical juncture. Though we have significant assets and a future rich with possibilities, we also face significant social, educational, economic, environmental, and governance issues. We must understand and confront these issues if we are to assure that residents of all the communities making up our region enjoy the highest possible quality of life and guarantee that we are competitive vis-à-vis other regions. Our ability to make steady progress toward solving our problems and building on our strengths will be enhanced if we have a mechanism that identifies key indicators of the region’s social and economic health and tracks those indicators over many years. This will help us understand whether the quality of life in the region is improving or not – and whether our strategic interventions are making a difference.

For this reason, the United Way of Greater Cincinnati has joined with other regional organizations to develop this report, The State of the Community. This is not a one-time,“snapshot” study of our region’s socio-economic health. Rather, it is an ongoing project through which we will regularly measure change in the region’s well-being as measured by a set of valid and reliable indicators. This first report is designed to be as accessible and useful as possible.