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Did you know that our region ranks 1st nationally in major league sports appreciation? Read about it.

We now publish 3 interactive charts with hourly readings from the 4 major rivers. Read about it.

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

The local economy is less dependent on Tourism than other benchmark regions. Read about it.

Farewell to a friend: remembering John G. Craig Jr. Read about it.

The Regional Indicator welcomes Doug Heuck as our new Program Director. Read about it.

Check out real-time water quality readings thanks to our friends at 3Rain.org. Read about it.

For the first time in decades, domestic in-migration in the region exceeded out-migration! Read about it.

Despite recession, the regional labor force shows continued growth, contributing to a high unemployment rate. Read about it.

Want to become involved with PittsburghTODAY?? Read about it.

Pittsburgh ranks third in the number of LEED-certified buildings. Read about it.

A reasonably effective way to evaluate overall health status is to simply ask. Read about it.

A Little Good News, At Last. 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.

Pittsburgh trails Baltimore, St. Louis and Denver in number of cultural institutions. Read about it.

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

Pittsburgh’s unemployment rate lower than all benchmark regions for a fourth month in a row. Read about it.

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

Pittsburgh last among benchmark regions in startup firms. Read about it.

No benchmark region has as high a high school graduation rate as Pittsburgh. Read about it.

A bad air day in Pittsburgh is still bad. 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.

Have you found all 100 plus charts? Read about it.

We've recently added a sitemap to quickly find content. Read about it.

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Welcome to the new PittsburghTODAY! We’ve worked hard to create a better source for regional information and benchmark comparisons.


This site was created after a series of discussions about “Regional Benchmarking” – simply said, comparing Pittsburgh against other regions to see where we stand.


There was also a need for quality regional data about Southwestern Pennsylvania. The question is, where does SWPA end and some other region begin? We have several answers.


It was decided to create a site that mixes the two ideas: Benchmarking a chosen set of regions and showing the same data for SWPA.

Have you found all 100 charts? Take a look at the sitemap or search the site!

Our new site is full of technical improvements, which will be discussed here in our Google Documents Tutorials.


For the rest of us, here’s the features we think are great:


Improved Navigation bar available on every Indicator page.


Map View: Fire up your projector and launch the Explore by Map page – this Google Maps API shows you the core counties of the Pittsburgh Region and the Benchmark City Regions that we follow. Click a County or Region to view its population and details, and then click “View Region Page” for info and indicators relevant to that region. Use the elevation and highway views to drive home your regional discussion.

Explore by Indicator: We’ve simplified the interface to bring you closer to data. If you would like an Indicator Category delivered to your inbox, you can use the RSS Feeds or E-mail Subscription service. A daily digest of indicators will arrive when updates are made!


Print an Indicator: Need data on the go, where wireless just won’t reach? Use the Print Icon to generate a one-page flyer for any indicator - complete with the Interactive Chart, Data Table, details, source and commentary – to share with your friends and colleagues.


Share interesting pages with your friends on Facebook, Digg, Yahoo, StumbleUpon, or send a link by E-mail.

Newly created library for PittsburghTODAY documents, presentations, tutorials, and publications; read 3 years of John Craig’s e-newsletter or browse the rich Pittsburgh Quarterly reports online.


Site Search: Within the familiar site search box, you can search the full text of any indicator or keyword of your choice. Certain keywords trigger helpful links, to help you to your destination.


Improved Charts and Graphs: You can now save any chart as an image! Using Google Documents, all data in the site is stored online and can be updated in moments. Charts can be scaled and styled to better fit the data. View some of our most improved charts.

Get Data: Users can now click a button to get all of the data we have available in spreadsheet format. This data can easily be resorted or exported to Office for further editing. Google Documents also allows these users to create their own charts and graphs, and PittsburghTODAY will soon offer tutorials.


Brand new photo carousel: browse through an assortment of regional photos at your own pace – you can pause and move through the images. You can also click the Camera and Globe icons to see a short caption or the full description, complete with Google Maps Thumbnail of the photo’s location.


Now you can sign up for all PittsburghTODAY Communications right from the site: John’s Newsletter, the site Update Feed, or choose an indicator category to have delivered daily.