Identifying Peer Regions with Evansville Regional Business Committee

The Problem  

The Evansville Regional Business Committee (ERBC) is a coalition of business partners with an ambitious goal: make Southwest Indiana the talent and economic region of choice in the Midwest. Led by Pete Paradossi, President, the ERBC calls this initiative “Talent 2025.”

The ERBC recognized that if they only focused on economic growth, their efforts to make Evansville the region of choice would fail. In order to improve the region, the ERBC needed real data on Evansville’s economic and social wellbeing. Finally, the ERBC wanted to compare the Evansville region to peers and continue tracking the region’s progress over time. 

The Solution

In 2017, the ERBC chose Chmura as its partner to aggressively improve Southwest Indiana’s attractiveness as a place to live and work. Chmura helped the ERBC…

• Develop quantitative socioeconomic indicators, including demographics, employment and wage growth, educational attainment, and community wellbeing, that would help inform the development of strategies to make Evansville an attractive place to live and work.
• Identify peer regions. Chmura identified regions that were similar to Evansville—peer regions—and aspirational peers, based on Evansville’s demographics, location, key industries, and other factors. When comparing peer regions, Chmura was careful to choose data that was both high-quality and available nationally to provide accurate comparisons.
• Track Evansville’s progress over time. Since 2017, the Chmura team has updated Evansville’s socioeconomic indicators multiple times. This gives the ERBC the accurate data it needs to make plans that can transform Southwest Indiana into a region of choice.

The Chmura Difference

Chmura’s socioeconomic indicators eliminate uncertainty and allowed the ERBC to understand precisely where Evansville needs to improve and where the region stands in comparison to its current and aspirational peer regions. Our analysis provides clarity. The ERBC used Chmura’s indicators to develop five workstreams that measure poverty levels, educational attainment, health, and business, wage, and population growth.

“The Chmura team does a fantastic job in identifying, collecting, and interpreting data in support of Talent 2025. Their analysis and recommendations help create a solid foundation for us to build on,” says Pete Paradossi.

 Pete Paradossi and Dr. Chris Chmura talk about Chmura and ERBC’s ongoing partnership.

An Ongoing Partnership

Chmura's Consulting team continued its partnership with the ERBC in 2022, providing the ERBC with an updated report to measure where the region stands in relation to their 2025 goals. Using JobsEQ, the team analyzed numerous data sets to identify areas of growth, and areas in which Evansville could continue to improve. Our report included a scorecard of key indicators over time, to provide a concise snapshot of the change between 2018 and 2022 for Evansville and the identified peer regions, as well as the average for aspirational peer regions.

Real Average Annual Wages, Labor Force Participation Rate for Minority Population, and Bachelor's Degrees for Minority Population are three indicators that have been added since earlier reports, to provide a more comprehensive understanding of Evansville's economic and social wellbeing. These new indicators provide clarity on the impact of inflation in Evansville, as well as insight on progress made towards diversity, equity and inclusion goals within the region.

We are proud to partner with Evansville Regional Business Committee to grow Southwest Indiana. Do you need help tracking your region’s socioeconomic progress and comparing it to peer regions? Contact us about our consulting services today. We are helping the Evansville region win. We can help you too.