Government Resiliency

Definition

General local government debt to revenue ratio for counties

Why is it Important?

Governments are more resilient to changes in the economy when they have lower debt to revenue ratios. Lower ratios provide flexibility to local governments, enables countercyclical policy-making, and reduces the impact of economic downturns. This indicator measures the debt to revenue ratio for the counties in the St. Louis region.¹

How are we Doing?

In both 2007 and 2012 the counties in the St. Louis region averaged a debt to revenue ratio of about 1.0 with no significant change between the baseline year 2007 and 2012. 

Geographic Level

St. Louis eight-county bi-state region, including Franklin, Jefferson, St. Charles, and St. Louis counties and the city of St. Louis in Missouri and Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair counties in Illinois. View map.

Notes

¹This indicator is a HUD Flagship Sustainability Indicator. The Flagship Indicators were created for the Sustainable Community Initiative in an effort to develop a common national framework for measuring long-term progress toward sustainable communities.

Data Sources

U.S. Census Bureau, 2007 and 2012 Census of Governments