Boosting Community Insights with Polco’s New Comparison Groups Feature
When it comes to understanding and improving communities, context is everything. That’s why Polco is excited to introduce our new Comparison Groups feature, designed to empower civic leaders with actionable, comparative insights. By allowing local governments to benchmark their community data against similar regions, cities, or even national averages, Comparison Groups provide a powerful new dimension to the Polco Track Dashboard.
Why Comparison Groups Matter
Every community is unique, but many share common challenges and goals. Whether aiming to reduce unemployment rates, improve public health, or increase educational attainment, community leaders need to know how their metrics compare to others in similar circumstances. The Comparison Groups feature allows you to do just that—by selecting peer cities, counties, or regions, you can easily benchmark each metric within a meaningful context. This, in turn, helps communities make smarter, more informed decisions.
How the Comparison Groups Feature Works
With the new Comparison Groups functionality, you can:
- Up to 10 Peer Communities: Civic leaders can choose up to 9 similar areas to compare metrics side-by-side on the Track Dashboard. These areas can be chosen based on geotype—such as all cities or all counties—making for relevant comparisons that highlight trends and benchmarks that matter most.
- View Historical Trends with Timeline Graphs: The feature allows communities to track performance over time. For example, you can compare your unemployment rate with that of peer communities and see how it’s changed over the past decade (as shown in the screenshot above). These visualizations are ideal for understanding not just where you stand, but also how trends have developed and evolved.
- Detailed Domain-Based Histograms: Each metric within a Comparison Group is supported by histograms, showing where your community lands in comparison to others. This makes it easy to identify outliers, averages, and specific data points where a community excels or falls behind.
Taking Action with Comparison Groups Data
Using Polco's Comparison Groups, community leaders can:
- Benchmark Their Performance: With the ability to compare metrics across a selected group, leaders can see how they stack up against similar communities.
- Identify Improvement Areas: The ordering of metrics within each data point helps leaders quickly locate areas where they lag and need to improve.
- Explore Data at a Granular Level: Category-specific dashboards and trendlines offer detailed insights, which can be toggled on or off for easy data exploration.
- Save and Embed Data Points: You can save comparison data points and even embed them externally or in content posts, making it easy to share and showcase data insights.
Key Feature Details
Polco’s Comparison Groups are fully configurable to meet each client’s unique needs. Here’s a quick summary of what you can expect:
- Demographic Tables: Display demographic data for each member in the group, enabling a comprehensive understanding of population similarities and differences.
- Toggleable Trends: Visualize trends for each community over time, allowing for an in-depth analysis of each area’s performance.
- Parent Area Indicators: When data is only available at a broader level (like a county instead of a city), an intuitive (i) icon highlights this, helping avoid confusion.
Note: This feature currently supports only areas within the same geotype and location, but Polco is working on expanding this to mixed groups in the future. If your community would benefit from broader comparisons, reach out to a Polco Account Executive to discuss options and timelines.
Get Started with Comparison Groups
Setting up Comparison Groups is a breeze with Polco’s support. Simply get in touch with a Polco Account Executive, and we’ll walk you through the configuration process. With Comparison Groups, you can start comparing your metrics to similar communities and leverage these insights for informed, data-driven decision-making.
As civic challenges grow more complex, tools like Comparison Groups make it easier to make impactful decisions with confidence. Ready to see where your community stands? Reach out to us today to start unlocking the power of comparison!