Community indicators are statistical measures of a community's quality of life, through which a community can track things getting better or worse. Often they are created through extensive conversations in the community.

Communities around the world have developed local statistics to measure their collective well-being. Starting in the 1970's, more and more communities realized that so-called economic indicators - like Gross Domestic Product, employment statistics, average family income, etc. - could be high or rising, while the quality of life experienced by people could be quite low. Even seemingly affluent communities realized they were haunted by drug abuse, environmental decay, a frantic pace of life, alienation, mounting health problems, and so on. So they decided to create statistics of their own, ones which would more accurately reflect the felt sense of their community's health and well-being. As alternatives to Quality of Life, many communities choose indicators related to Sustainability or Healthy Communities.

All statistics provide informational feedback for reflection by the organization, community or society gathering the statistics, and therefore are an important resource for Collective Intelligence. The more these statistics reflect the true needs and aspirations of the community and the harmonious relationships between the community and the world around it, the more co-intelligent those statistics can be considered.

See

Redefining Progress' Community Indicators Project http://www.rprogress.org/projects/indicators/

Susan Strong, The GDP Myth: How It Harms Our Quality of Life and What Communities are Doing About It, $11.50 + state tax if applicable, from the Center for Economic Conversion, 222 View St., Mountain View, CA 94041 -Phone: (650) 968-8798 Fax: (650) 968-1126 - E-mail: cec@igc.org