Peer county analysis

Erie Vital Signs contains analyses comparing Erie County to its peer counties as a means to provide readers with a situational comparison against counties of similarity across several of our categories. Before the comparisons could be run, however, an analysis was conducted in order to isolate which of the country's 3,242 counties could be considered Erie's peers. This peer counties analysis was conducted by Erie County Department of Planning and the Erie County Data Center and was based off of the following six criteria, utilizing data provided by the U.S. Census and Emsi.

• The county seat's population must be between 80,000 and 120,000 residents

• The county seat must be within 50 miles of a significant body of water, attributed to its tourism

• The county population must be below 1 million residents

• The surrounding county must have at least half the city population

• The county's gross regional product (GRP) must include within the top industries at least 2 of the following: Manufacturing, Finance and Insurance, Health Care and Social Assistance

• The county's employment by industry must include within the top categories at least 4 of the following: Manufacturing, Healthcare & Social Service, Educational Services, Accommodation and Food Service, Retail Trade

Following these criteria, the following counties and their seat cities have been identified as Erie's peers for the analyses conducted within Erie Vital Signs: