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Section 1: Economic Competitiveness

In this section, researchers analyzed the performance of the Tampa Bay region鈥檚 economy,
looking indicators broadly measure the economic growth and prosperity of a region. The specific indicators used were the unemployment rate, gross regional product per capita, the poverty rate, the supplemental poverty measure, and the household debt-to-income ratio, using the years 2008- 2019.

The data sources for these indicators are the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Bureau of
Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau. These sources provide data at the MSA level.
For 18 MSAs, researchers pulled data from directly from the sources. However, for the Raleigh-
Durham MSA, which consists of two MSAs (Raleigh MSA and Durham-Chapel Hill MSA) and the
Tampa Bay region, which consists of four MSAs (Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA, Northport- Sarasota-Bradenton MSA, Homosassa Springs, and Lakeland-Winter Haven), scholars aggregated the data from the MSA level to the regional level by taking weighted average using population as the weight. For each economic indicator, the definition and the data source are mentioned at the beginning of the page of that indicator.

Three charts are presented for each of the economic indicators. In the first chart, researchers
present the snapshot of the indicator values for all the MSAs for three years: 2008, 2015 and 2019. The second chart presents the trend for four to five MSAs, including the Tampa Bay MSA. For these trend charts, researchers present the Tampa Bay MSA data alongside the best performing MSA, the worst performing MSA, and one or two MSAs that have shown moderate performance. The third chart illustrates the changes in the competitive positions of four to five MSAs, including the Tampa Bay region, over time. For determining the competitive position of a MSA in a year, researchers rank-order the MSAs based on performance of MSAs on that indicator for each year. The best performing MSA is ranked No. 1; the worst performing MSA is ranked No. 20. Finally, key takeaways are presented for each indicator after the graphical charts.