Vital Signs

 

The Vital Signs are 40 outcome indicators that "take the pulse" of Baltimore neighborhoods to measure progress towards a shared vision for strong Baltimore neighborhoods, improved quality of life, and a thriving city over time.

 

Indicators are developed to track changes over time in several vital areas including Housing and Community Development, Children and Family Health, Crime and Safety, Workforce and Economic Development, Sanitation, Urban Environment and Transportation Education and Youth, and Neighborhood Action. 

 

The Alliance tracks these outcome indicators each year, and Vital Signs offer Baltimore a common way of understanding how our neighborhoods and overall quality of life are changing over time.

 

The Vital Signs report uses the Community Statistical Areas (CSAs) as its geographic level for which data is provided.  CSAs are aggregations of Census tract boundaries, which are consistent statistical boundaries.  The CSAs were originally created by the Baltimore City Department of Planning in conjunction with the Baltimore Data Collaborative in preparation for presenting data in Vital Signs.

 

There are a total of 271 neighborhoods officially recognized by the City, however, these neighborhood boundaries do not closely relate to usable geographies identified by the U.S. Census Bureau (i.e. Census tracts, block groups, etc.). Because BNIA-JFI calculates indicators in relation to population as reported by the Census Bureau, the Vital Signs indicators needed to be directly aligned with Census geographies. Similar neighboring tracts were grouped together, based on demographics and socioeconomic status, and were given names that were representative of neighborhoods that fell within those statistical areas. For instance, the Belair-Edison CSA is primarily comprised of the Belair-Edison neighborhood but also the Four by Four and Mayfield neighborhoods. These CSA names are merely given to provide a general reference.


View/download a map of Community Statistical Areas

Download an Excel file that details the Census tracts used to create CSAs

 

To access our current edition, Vital Signs 10, use the navigational links on the right to access the reports and data. For CSA specific data, click on the Baltimore City map on the left and select a CSA.

 

Older editions of Vial Signs can be accessed using the navigational links on the left.