Methodology
Metro Data Methodology
The current dataset covers 24 CBSAs. Values are shown exactly as reported by their cited sources; no overall, partial, category or topic scores are published.
Data updated:
Geography: CBSA (metropolitan statistical area), OMB Bulletin 23-01 (July 2023) — never city limits.
1 · Scope
What This Measures and What It Does Not
LocatePrime publishes metro-level location fundamentals from public and institutional datasets. The current displayed indicators cover industrial electricity price, state tax competitiveness rank and CBSA unemployment context.
This is a screening reference. It is not a substitute for a site-specific feasibility study, a utility load study or an incentives negotiation.
No aggregate output is published from incomplete source coverage. A category will not receive a calculation until at least three sourced indicators are loaded for that category, with metro-level data used wherever it exists.
2 · Geography
CBSA Level Unless a Table States Otherwise
All metro pages use Core Based Statistical Areas, specifically metropolitan statistical areas. City-limits geography is never used.
The delineation vintage is the OMB Bulletin 23-01 (July 2023) delineation of Core Based Statistical Areas. CBSA (Core Based Statistical Area, metropolitan statistical area), OMB Bulletin 23-01 (July 2023) delineation. City-limits geography is never used. Each scorecard and comparison names the official CBSA title and CBSA code under the page heading.
Some indicators are available only at state level. For those inputs, the site uses the state of the CBSA's first principal city and labels the geography as state-level on every affected page. Bi-state metros also carry a visible note naming the other state.
3 · Categories and weights
Six Categories, Weighted by the 2026 Survey
Category weights follow the factor importance scores reported in the Area Development, 40th Annual Corporate and 22nd Annual Consultant Site Selection Survey, Q1 2026. Quality of life is retained only as a labelled retention subfactor inside Workforce & Talent Pipeline, not as a top-level category.
| Category | Weight | Survey factors represented, with importance score | Current status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workforce & Talent Pipeline | 24% | Skilled labor availability (100%); Technical talent pipeline depth (95.5%); Quality of life / retention context (no published percentage in the current source) | Only unemployment context is currently loaded. Category calculations are not published from context-only values. |
| Power & Energy | 20% | Power availability at scale (98.5%); Transmission and substation capacity (97%); Grid reliability (92.5%) | SAIDI and SAIFI are registered but not loaded; utility load-interconnection timelines are not published in a comparable metro series. |
| Site Readiness & Land | 17% | Site readiness and due diligence (98.5%); Contiguous developable acreage (92.5%); Zoning compatibility (no published percentage in the current source); Environmental and land-use risk (no published percentage in the current source) | Requires certified-site inventories, parcel-level contiguous acreage and current zoning classifications held by state and local jurisdictions in incompatible formats. |
| Speed & Governance | 15% | Responsive state and local government (97%); Certainty of permitting (94%); Political and regulatory stability (94%) | Requires measured permitting cycle times and approval outcomes by jurisdiction. No audited comparable series covers the metros in this set. |
| Operating Cost Structure | 16% | Operating cost structure (tax, labor, occupancy, energy) (97%) | Industrial electricity price and state tax rank are loaded. Occupancy cost remains unavailable until comparable CBRE or JLL quarterly asking-rent values are available for all 24 metros. |
| Logistics & Market Access | 8% | Highway and freight access (no published percentage in the current source); Proximity to major customer markets (no published percentage in the current source); Rail, intermodal and air service (no published percentage in the current source) | No logistics values are loaded. Freight, rail, air-service and market-access indicators remain unpublished until comparable source data is added. |
| Total | 100% | No aggregate calculation is published. |
4 · Indicator table
Every Indicator, Source, Vintage and Cadence
This table is generated from the same source registry read by the pages. A source appears in a page footnote only when it feeds a value shown on that page, or when the page displays the Area Development category weights.
Workforce & Talent Pipeline · 24% · 2 loaded indicator definitions
Availability of skilled labor and the depth of the technical talent pipeline feeding it, including quality-of-life conditions that affect retention.
| Indicator | Definition note | Organization | Dataset and series | Vintage | Cadence | Geography |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unemployment rate, July 2026p | Not seasonally adjusted. Preliminary value. A low unemployment rate indicates a tight labor market, which can make hiring harder. It is shown for context only. | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics | Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment news release, Table 1 — Unemployment rate, not seasonally adjusted, July 2026 preliminary (p) and July 2025 by metropolitan area; USDL-26-1433 | Released September 2, 2026; July 2026 preliminary and July 2025 reference months | Monthly | CBSA |
| Unemployment rate, July 2025 | Not seasonally adjusted. A low unemployment rate indicates a tight labor market, which can make hiring harder. It is shown for context only. | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics | Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment news release, Table 1 — Unemployment rate, not seasonally adjusted, July 2026 preliminary (p) and July 2025 by metropolitan area; USDL-26-1433 | Released September 2, 2026; July 2026 preliminary and July 2025 reference months | Monthly | CBSA |
Power & Energy · 20% · 0 loaded indicator definitions
Availability of electric power at the load levels large facilities request, the transmission and substation capacity serving candidate sites, and delivered grid reliability.
No sourced indicator values are loaded for this category.
Site Readiness & Land · 17% · 0 loaded indicator definitions
Whether shovel-ready sites exist in the market: completed due diligence, contiguous developable acreage and zoning that already permits the intended use.
No sourced indicator values are loaded for this category.
Speed & Governance · 15% · 0 loaded indicator definitions
How predictably a project moves through approvals: responsiveness of state and local government, certainty of permitting timelines, and political and regulatory stability.
No sourced indicator values are loaded for this category.
Operating Cost Structure · 16% · 2 loaded indicator definitions
Recurring cost of operating a facility in the metro: tax structure, labor cost, occupancy cost and energy cost.
| Indicator | Definition note | Organization | Dataset and series | Vintage | Cadence | Geography |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average industrial retail electricity price | Average price of electricity to ultimate industrial customers by state. U.S. average reference value: 8.13 cents/kWh. | U.S. Energy Information Administration | Electric Power Annual, Table 2.10 — Average Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers by End-Use Sector, by State; Industrial; Form EIA-861 final values | Year 2024 final | Annual | State (applied to the metro's first principal city state) |
| State Tax Competitiveness Index overall rank | Rank 1 is the most competitive state tax structure; rank 50 is the least competitive. | Tax Foundation | 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index — Overall rank by state; reflects tax systems as of July 1, 2025 | 2026 edition (tax systems as of July 1, 2025) | Annual | State (applied to the metro's first principal city state) |
Logistics & Market Access · 8% · 0 loaded indicator definitions
Inbound and outbound movement of goods and people: highway and freight capacity, rail and intermodal access, air service and reach to customer markets.
No sourced indicator values are loaded for this category.
13 datasets are registered in total. Four displayed values are loaded for each of 24 metros, and each stored value carries its own source_id, vintage, unit and geography level.
5 · Publication rule
No Normalization or Composite Calculation Is Published Yet
Composite calculations are not published. Figures shown are taken directly from the cited sources without adjustment.
Loaded values are displayed as raw source values without rounding, adjustment, interpolation or normalization. Missing metrics read "Not available" rather than being filled with plausible estimates.
The next normalization method, when eligible, will be documented before publication and will show the exact formula, directionality and category arithmetic. Until then, pages show the underlying data only.
6 · Known limitations
What This Dataset Cannot Yet Do
Certified-site and permitting definitions are inconsistent
The 2026 Area Development survey ranks site readiness and permitting certainty among the factors that matter most, but public definitions are not comparable. Certification requirements, acreage thresholds, utility commitments and expiration rules differ by state and locality. Those categories are therefore shown as indicators not yet published.
State electricity averages are not 25+ MW tariffs
EIA state industrial averages do not reflect negotiated large-load industrial tariffs for 25+ MW projects. A high-load-factor manufacturing plant or data center needs a utility-specific rate quote, load study and service agreement.
Generator interconnection is not load interconnection
LBNL Queued Up tracks power plants seeking transmission grid connection. It is not a measure of how quickly a manufacturing plant or data center can receive load service, although many published comparisons conflate the two.
Market boundaries may not match CBSAs
Private-market series such as CBRE data center and industrial figures are published on CBRE market boundaries, which do not always match CBSA boundaries. Those rows are labelled separately when displayed.
7 · Update log
Dated Record of Every Data Refresh
The current published dataset vintage is September 2026. Every data page carries a "Data updated" line beneath its heading, taken from the newest vintage among the values that page actually renders.
| Date | Vintage | Change | Pages affected |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 2026 | Removed all provisional indices and aggregate scoring fields. Loaded sourced indicators for industrial electricity price, state tax competitiveness rank and metro unemployment context. | All data pages |
Scheduled refreshes
| Expected | Release |
|---|---|
| October 2026 | Review EIA Form 861 reliability tables for SAIDI and SAIFI values with and without major event days. |
| Next CBRE/JLL quarterly release | Load metro industrial and office asking rent only where all 24 metros can be sourced to the same published quarter. |
Sources used on this page
- U.S. Energy Information Administration. Electric Power Annual, Table 2.10, Year 2024 final.
- Tax Foundation. 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index, 2026 edition (tax systems as of July 1, 2025).
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment news release, Table 1, Released September 2, 2026; July 2026 preliminary and July 2025 reference months.
- Area Development, 40th Annual Corporate and 22nd Annual Consultant Site Selection Survey, Q1 2026. Category weights only; no composite calculation is published.
Composite calculations are not published. Figures shown are taken directly from the cited sources without adjustment.
All figures are reported at the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) level as delineated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, not city limits. Where a series is only published at state level, that is stated in the indicator table. Full source provenance and category weights.