The following is from our community partners City of Bend:

The Brookings Institute recently released their Metro Monitor for 2025 which examines economic performance in various categories including growth, prosperity, overall inclusion, racial inclusion, and geographic inclusion. All of the categories are measured using three criteria including employment rate, earnings and poverty. The data that is included in the report was analyzed from the 2013-2023 time period.

Among 85 midsized metro areas, the Bend MSA ranked #1 in Growth, Prosperity and Overall Inclusion while significantly falling to #78 and 48 for Racial Inclusion and Geographic Inclusion, respectively. This data reflects many of the things we know, the region has grown exponentially in the past decade and has created a lot of opportunity for folks to have upward economic mobility. That said, other identities have not had the same experience with our region ranking almost at the bottom in the relative income poverty rate for white/people of color.

This underscores the emphasis that the City has placed for continued momentum of economic development in our time of uncertainty, while reaffirming and strengthening our commitment to equity in the coming biennium.

Read the full Metro Monitor report here.