BALTIMORE (January 23, 2004) – Anyone seeking demographic information at the community level can now go to www.baltometro.org/CP/CommunityProf.html for data on all 94 regional planning districts (RPDs) in Baltimore City and the five surrounding counties.  The Baltimore Metropolitan Council (BMC) has organized data in tabular form from the Census, its own Building Permit Data System and employment database, and socioeconomic projections from the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board’s Cooperative Forecasting Group, so that end-users will be able to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of their communities.

"Community groups and neighborhood and nonprofit organizations often need economic and demographic information about specific communities, but lack the resources to collect and organize the data themselves," said Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, the BMC Chair.  "BMC is making this information readily available at no cost as a service to those who seek to improve our communities."

Data headings include population, households, housing, labor force, employment, education, income, major employers, residential and commercial development and socioeconomic projections.  Population, household and housing data is also broken down by census tract within the RPD.  Detailed maps showing census tracts and transportation analysis zones (TAZs) accompany the data, along with a representative photograph of the community.

While Community Profiles are envisioned as a useful tool for planners and policymakers, the resource has wider applicability.  The Profiles provide invaluable information for businesses that may be looking to relocate or expand operations in the Baltimore region, and should also prove to be a useful research tool for residential and commercial developers, and marketing firms.

 "Those of us who are engaged in promoting Greater Baltimore will be able to make extensive use of these new products in marketing the economic advantages of the region," added Richard Story, Chair of the Economic Development Advisory Committee of the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore (formerly the Greater Baltimore Alliance).