Finding metric types

A metric is a measure of demography, characteristics and performance – data about councils, local areas and their inhabitants that can be used by individuals and is fed into LG Inform Plus’s tools. Simply put, it's a statistic.

Searching

The simplest way to find what you want is by searching. Type a keyword or two into the Search page, limit the results if you feel like it and click ‘search’. You’ll be shown a list of relevant results from which you can make notes and build your plan.

The Metrics list

For a full list of available metrics, please see the Metrics list. Large area metric types feed through to LG Inform, whereas small area metric types are only available in LG Inform Plus. The titles in the list can be used when searching for metrics or adding metrics to components.

The Functions list

The Functions list is a hierarchy of service groups or activities that a public sector body performs, splitting the role of local government into bite-size chunks and grouping the key services that underpin those themes. You can use the categories to find corresponding metric types. For example, if you’re looking for data about households, try the Housing function. Once you’ve chosen a function at any level of hierarchy, click the Details tab to see a list of relevant metric types and services.

In-app searching

Whilst editing components or text tokens, type a keyword or two, or the title of a metric from the Metrics list, into the relevant field. If you’re editing a component, the field will be labelled ‘Choose a metric type’; and if you’re editing a text token, the field will be labelled ‘metric type’.