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Have you seen our Economy indicators on Hotel Occupancy? Read about it.

Detailed information about unconventional wells drilled, permits and violations thanks to our partners at FracTracker.org Read about it.

Want to become involved with PittsburghTODAY? Read about it.

More than 75 percent of African Americans rate their health as good, very good or excellent. But 1-in-4 rate their health as fair or poor compared to about 1-in-5 residents of other races who give their health the lowest ratings. Read about it.

More residents overall support Marcellus Shale drilling than oppose it by a margin of 45 percent to 25 percent, with the rest in neither camp. Read about it.

1,800 residents, 32 counties, 4 states: A distillation of the findings of the Pittsburgh Regional Quality of Life Survey. Read about it.

Did you know that 45,000 jobs in SW PA are dependent upon the waterway transportation system? Read about it.

Our neighbors in Ohio and West Virginia lead the region in classical music attendance. Read about it.

Nearly 70 percent of new Pittsburgh arrivals are between the ages of 22 and 34, migrating from nearby cities such as Philadelphia, Pa.; Washington, D.C.; and New York, NY. Read about it.

Educational and Health Services is Pittsburgh’s largest job sector. Read about it.

Registered nurses pay is low in Pittsburgh by national standards. Read about it.

Local spending on schools is low by benchmark standards. Read about it.

Rush hour traffic in Pittsburgh is less congested than in most cities? Read about it.

Use our sitemap to quickly find content. Read about it.

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Getting Started

On Thanksgiving eve 2003, John G. Craig Jr. and Paul O'Neill met with Chancellor Mark Nordenberg of the University of Pittsburgh and President Jared Cohon of Carnegie Mellon University to propose that their universities jointly support an 18-month study on the feasibility of establishing a regional indicator system for Greater Pittsburgh.

Craig had been involved for six years as editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the newspaper's "Pittsburgh Benchmarks" project, which had lapsed with his retirement. O'Neill, while secretary of the treasury, was involved in initial meetings under the auspices of the GAO and the National Academies to establish a national indicator program.  Visit the State of the USA. 

On October 17, 2004, PittsburghTODAY held a daylong meeting of representatives of the many organizations with which it had been working, as well as representatives of the university, foundation and nonprofit community, to report on its investigations.

It was proposed that the local effort start small with the organization of four initial topic area committees: Economics, Health, Environment and Demographics. The fundamental decisions about how to choose an indicator were also made at that time.

The response to these proposals was generally positive and in December, 2004, PittsburghTODAY agreed to proceed. In doing so, it established procedures to get the committees up and running, to raise additional funding and to expand into other topic areas.

A number of partner organizations came on board at that time and have been involved in the project going forward.