Grant applications and program planning demand data about lower-income populations, but that can be hard to find. The new External LinkLMI Data Books, launched in April by the Kansas City Fed, helps fill gaps in data specific to populations served by many nonprofits and community organizations.
These unique tools provide data on demographics, employment and wages, and housing by wage level, down to at least the county level across the Federal Reserve’s Tenth District (Colorado, Kansas, western Missouri, Nebraska, northern New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming). This data provides a sense of how lower-income groups are faring compared with higher-income groups. The tools are interactive, allowing users to get data at a geographic level that is more useful for them and their work than was available before.
How can you use this data?
We designed the tool with organizations serving low- and moderate-income (LMI) populations in mind. Such organizations are critical intermediaries in fostering economic participation and mobility.
Maree Forbes Gaughan is CEO of Community Economic Partners, which helps small towns and rural communities improve their economic conditions. Forbes Gaughan said their first step is to “create a baseline economic profile of the area, which most smaller communities do not have.” She began using the LMI Data Books soon after their release. Information on the demographic makeup of the community, the economy and housing serves as the foundation of each economic profile. “In a world where different sets of data from other organizations often conflict,” she said, “having accurate information such as that produced by the Federal Reserve is imperative."
These tools can be valuable to a wide range of users, from high school social studies classes to policymakers at various levels of government. The interactive tools allow users to better understand aspects of the economy by income level in geographies of interest to them.
What can you expect with these tools?
Frequently updated: quarterly updates on data whenever available. This keeps the data fresh for use across various grant cycles and easy monitoring of conditions should they change quickly.
Small-scale data: All data is available at least at the county level where the data exists. Users should expect that rural areas will often have either a lack of data or have more variable data over time. This can be due to reasons such as rural areas either having too few jobs or housing units for sale or rent to provide reliable information.
Evolving tools: We plan to provide new data to these tools where possible and make updates to the tools for a better user experience.
We’re listening: If you have ideas for data that would help your organization, please let us know so we can explore the opportunity to include it.
Over the course of the year, you can also expect articles showcasing the data in practice. While we built the tools with LMI-serving organizations in mind, the Kansas City Fed also benefits from this data. We plan to show how we use the data through a series of articles in the Community Connections newsletter throughout 2026. Stay tuned, and if you have not already done so, External Linkplease sign up to receive emails from community development to receive the newsletter and be notified when the LMI Data Books have been updated.
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City or the Federal Reserve System.
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