Data sources
Metropolis IQ brings together trusted public, commercial, and internally derived data to support economic and workforce analysis.
Public data
MIQ uses authoritative public data sources, including data from organizations such as:
- U.S. Census Bureau
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
We also collect relevant information from public websites, public databases, government publications, and other publicly available sources when appropriate. These are examples, not a complete list.
Specialized third-party data
Some questions require information that is not available from standard government datasets. Metropolis IQ licenses data from specialized providers that are experts in collecting particular types of information or that maintain proprietary datasets.
Data we build
Metropolis IQ also creates analytical data of its own. Depending on the use case, we may:
- clean and normalize source data
- reconcile information from multiple sources
- calculate derived measures
- create estimates and projections
- classify or enrich records
- identify relationships and patterns
- generate new analytical outputs using Metropolis IQ models
Some values presented in MIQ are therefore derived from source data rather than appearing directly in an original dataset. Where appropriate, MIQ makes the distinction between source data and derived analysis clear.
How MIQ uses data
The value of MIQ is not simply access to data. It is the combination of data, methodology, context, and repeatable analytical workflows. MIQ uses curated and normalized economic and workforce data, documented methods, and practitioner-oriented analytical workflows to help users move from raw information to useful conclusions.
Traceability
Where practical, MIQ identifies the source and relevant time period behind figures used in analysis. Derived measures should be distinguishable from source values so users can understand how a conclusion was produced. Where data is suppressed, modeled or limited, MIQ says so, and where credible sources disagree, MIQ shows both.
Illustrative examples on this website
Examples on this website may use illustrative values. Illustrative examples are labeled as such; they are not customer results or real-world measurements.
Questions about a source?
If you have a question about data used by Metropolis IQ, contact us.