Akron Economic Dashboard
The Akron MSA achieved the best performance among the four Northeast Ohio metro areas. Even so it did not rank in the upper half in any of the four factors. The MSA achieved its strongest ranking in employment at 79 while the poorest performance was in Per Capita Income where the ranking came in at 105.
 |
 |
 |
 |
1.3% |
2.4% |
0.9% |
1.1% |
 |
 |
 |
 |
0.7% |
1.7% |
1.3% |
1.0% |
Akron Details
The table reports how the Akron MSA performed for each of the underlying drivers in 2000, 2005 and in 2006. The table shows Akron's rank among the 136 metro areas in the study.
Akron showed improvement from 2000 to 2006 in Local Amenities, climbing from 71th to 66th place. Its biggest drop was in Urban/Metro structure from 38 to 65, due mostly to poor showings in the Property Crime Rate.
| Factors and Variables | Akron MSA | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 2005 | 2006 | ||||
Value
| Rank
| Value
| Rank
| Value
| Rank
| |
| Skilled Workforce & R&D | 74 |
58 |
68 |
|||
| pct. of population in professional occupations | 32.0 |
81 |
34.1 |
59 |
33.0 |
71 |
| pct. of population with graduate or professional degree | 8.1 |
73 |
9.7 |
61 |
9.2 |
68 |
| pct. of population with bachelor's degree | 16.2 |
56 |
18.4 |
48 |
18.2 |
50 |
| industry R&D per employee | 417.3 |
66 |
353.5 |
74 |
429.3 |
73 |
| SBIR & STTR awards per employee | 5.78 |
44 |
6.54 |
62 |
4.71 |
35 |
| population dependency | 0.38 |
71 |
0.37 |
54 |
0.37 |
59 |
| university R&D per employee | 109.0 |
49 |
140.8 |
51 |
134.5 |
65 |
| Technology Commercialization | 36 |
60 |
58 |
|||
| venture capital per employee | 270.2 |
60 |
0.0 |
95 |
60.5 |
42 |
| number of patents per employee | 1.424 |
18 |
1.437 |
20 |
1.460 |
22 |
| cost of living | 96.2 |
66 |
89.0 |
100 |
86.7 |
118 |
| Racial Inclusion & Income Equality | 69 |
69 |
79 |
|||
| pct. of Black population | 10.9 |
86 |
11.5 |
88 |
11.7 |
86 |
| isolation index for Black population | 0.61 |
106 |
0.47 |
112 |
0.45 |
113 |
| income inequality | 5.8 |
62 |
5.5 |
40 |
5.8 |
57 |
| students at schools with more than 70% free lunches | 0.121 |
81 |
0.062 |
78 |
0.069 |
75 |
| violent crime rate | 191.7 |
4 |
274.7 |
18 |
284.9 |
16 |
| Urban Assimilation | 127 |
129 |
125 |
|||
| pct. of Hispanic population | 0.8 |
134 |
1.0 |
133 |
1.0 |
133 |
| share of minority business employment (in total emp) | 0.010 |
118 |
0.010 |
118 |
0.010 |
118 |
| pct. of foreign-born population | 3.0 |
113 |
3.2 |
117 |
3.7 |
112 |
| productivity in information sector | 98.5 |
94 |
146.5 |
96 |
128.9 |
104 |
| pct. of Asian population | 1.3 |
92 |
1.6 |
89 |
1.8 |
86 |
| Legacy of Place | 30 |
29 |
32 |
|||
| business churning | 0.171 |
112 |
0.169 |
114 |
0.167 |
114 |
| climate | 19 |
114 |
19 |
114 |
19 |
114 |
| pct. of houses built before 1940 | 20.7 |
108 |
21.2 |
110 |
21.5 |
110 |
| dissimilarity index for Black population | 0.70 |
110 |
0.66 |
115 |
0.65 |
113 |
| city poverty ratio | 1.79 |
97 |
1.78 |
98 |
1.69 |
94 |
| No. of government units per capita | 1.266 |
63 |
1.266 |
63 |
1.255 |
63 |
| share of manufacturing employment | 0.19 |
115 |
0.17 |
114 |
0.14 |
111 |
| Business Dynamics | 89 |
93 |
129 |
|||
| business openings over business closings | 1.01 |
89 |
1.10 |
93 |
0.97 |
129 |
| Individual Entrepreneurship | 104 |
101 |
114 |
|||
| pct. of self employed (all industries except ag & mining) | 0.083 |
84 |
0.094 |
93 |
0.087 |
106 |
| share of business establishments with under 20 workers | 0.837 |
106 |
0.840 |
99 |
0.839 |
106 |
| Locational Amenities | 71 |
49 |
66 |
|||
| transportation index (Almanac) | 69.7 |
76 |
38.0 |
71 |
71.0 |
68 |
| arts index (Almanac) | 81.6 |
37 |
76.0 |
45 |
69.0 |
72 |
| recreation index (Almanac) | 77.3 |
54 |
76.0 |
34 |
97.0 |
9 |
| health index (Almanac) | 24.1 |
117 |
33.0 |
78 |
27.0 |
112 |
| Urban/ Metro Structure | 38 |
66 |
65 |
|||
| share of city population in MSA population | 0.31 |
75 |
0.29 |
71 |
0.28 |
69 |
| property crime rate | 2795.4 |
16 |
3562.4 |
55 |
3772.9 |
61 |
