About Us
Sharing a vision of Lancaster County being “a model of prosperity for 21st century
America,” The Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Lancaster County Community
Foundation, United Way of Lancaster County and the County of Lancaster formed a
partnership in 2011 to develop a program to monitor how the county is doing in realizing
this vision. The program evolved into a prosperity indicators project called Building
A Prosperous Community. LNP Media Group, Inc. joined as a media partner in 2014
to help raise awareness of the community’s work on the indicators.
The project is designed to…
• Provide a benchmark of the county’s current state
• Identify the areas that most deserve the community’s attention as we work toward
prosperity
• Monitor the progress that is made in achieving our vision for the community.
This report presents the fifth update of the set of indicators. To put the findings
in perspective, indicators are shown for multiple years and, where appropriate,
comparisons are made to the state of Pennsylvania and adjacent counties.
The report continues to be used by the community and organizations as the basis
for discussions on where we are, where we want to go, and how to get there. The
findings are the foundation for program actions and policies designed to move Lancaster
County closer to the goal of being a model of prosperity.
We are excited to share this update of Lancaster County’s Prosperity Indicators
with the community.
Our Criteria
The selection of the individual indicators for each dimension of prosperity was
guided by five criteria.
• Content validity – It is important that each dimension has indicators that cover
as much of that dimension as possible. There is a needed balance between the number
of indicators and having a comprehensive measure of a dimension.
• Trend analysis – The annual report will track the indicators over time so it will
be possible to assess the extent to which the county is changing. To be able to
do this, it is critical that the same information is available for each indicator
over time. Depending upon the source of the data for an indicator, the time period
will vary. For example, some measures may not exist on an annual basis.
• Understandability – To be of maximum value, the measures in the report should
be easily understood by the entire community. While some esoteric measures may do
a better job than selected indicators, little is gained if persons do not understand
what the indicator is measuring.
• Actionable – A desired outcome of the prosperity indicators report is providing
direction to organizations and governments to take action in areas needing improvement.
To enhance the likelihood of this occurring, each indicator was reviewed to be certain
it is amenable to change as the result of organized efforts.
• Best practices – Indicator programs exist in many other communities. A review
of what these other communities are using for indicators offered some guidance to
the selection of our indicators.