Today's economists agree: A healthy creative economy is a vital piece of an area’s economic landscape. How does the creative economy of your city, county, or state compare against others? Which aspects of your city and regional workforce make your areas unique? Do you need better data to effectively measure and evaluate thriving creative sectors in your city or region? The most dynamic creative economy report available today, the Creative Vitality Index™ (CVI™), can provide that information and more.

The CVI™ is an annual measure of the health of the creative economy in a specified geographic area, which can be defined as a city, county, state, or region, or a combination of those areas. A CVI™ report is a snapshot of for-profit and non-profit creative enterprises and occupations as well as consumer spending in key creative sectors. The Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) proudly offers the CVI™, the most dynamic creative economy report available today. Because WESTAF has been engaged in research for the CVI™ since 2003, a complete package of CVI™ data can be quickly generated for your area. Unlike similar research, the budget-friendly CVI™ is available for as little as $6,000.

How does the CVI™ work? For each CVI™ report, WESTAF's research team aggregates established, longitudinal, and annually maintained data sets into a single index number that reflects the relative economic health of a geographic area's creative economy. Each CVI™ report includes a host of data that shows how the index number for a given area was derived and provides an easy-to-understand measure of the strength of your creative economy (or lack thereof). The CVI™ allows for year-to-year as well as cross-city and cross-state comparisons.