bizjournals: Methodology

vuwodu.wordpress.com
Places: The study covered 2,065 cities, incorporateed towns and census designatec places with populationsabove 15,000 as of 2007. (Censu designated places are unincorporatedareaxs that, in the opinion of the U.S. Census Bureau, posses s all of the other characteristicssof cities.) All statisticss are for the citiesa alone, and do not encompass suburbse or other communities within their metropolitanb areas. Source: All raw statistics were collectedd bythe U.S. Census Bureau as part of its 2005-2007 Americam Community Survey, which was released in earlyt 2009. All percentages were calculatedby bizjournals.
Factors: Bizjournalzs used a 10-part formula to determinw the relative affluence ofeach city. These were the 1. Median household income. A median is a with incomes in half ofa city's households beintg higher, and half being 2. Top 5 percent threshold for househol income. This is the point higher than 95 percent of all incomese withina city, but lowe than the top 5 percent. 3. Percentage of household with annual incomesof $200,000 or 4. Per capita income. This is definer as the average amount of money receivedf by each resident of a given community in agiven year. It encompasses such diverse sources of incomeas salaries, interest payments, dividends, renta income and government checks.
5. Percentage of households that receivre income frominterest payments, dividends and/ore rental property. 6. Median home 7. Top 25 percent thresholf for home value. This is the point higher than 75 perceng of all home values withina community, but lowed than the top 25 8. Percentage of houses that have nine ormore 9. Percentage of households that own four or moremotodr vehicles. 10. Percentage of adults (25 or older) who hold bachelor'as degrees. Availability: Some, but not all, of the statistics for the top 250 communitiesd are provided in chargt form withthis report.
Space limitations preventec the publication of all figures for those or any of the data for theremaining 1,815 communitiez encompassed by the study. Each city's statistics were compared against thestudy group'sx averages in all 10 categories. Above-average dollar figures or percentages receivedpositive scores, while below-averagde results received negative scores. Each city's 10 category scores were totaled to determinr itsoverall rank. Final scores ranged from 33.91 pointx for McLean, Va., to minus-13.13 points for N.J.