The Orlando Prosperity Scorecard is a mechanism to track economic performance and community development with the goal of achieving Broad-based Prosperity^®. Metrics fall into the framework of opportunities, capabilities, and access. This 2023 update seeks to build on the work of previous years and represents the first analysis since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Orlando region’s vision for economic success is Broad-based Prosperity. This means an economy that creates opportunities for all; where regional talent has the capabilities to take advantage of those opportunities, and barriers limiting access to participate in the economy are removed.

The Orlando Prosperity Scorecard serves as a tool quantifying this framework, capturing the Orlando metropolitan area’s pursuit of broad-based prosperity. Each of the three broad-based prosperity lenses (referred to as prosperity indicators) are measured for their overall progress but also the gaps that exist between people (people indicators), giving a fuller picture of how broad-based prosperity is distributed in the Orlando region.

Summary

1. This 2023 update of the Orlando Prosperity Scorecard shows that opportunity is being created in Orlando. The number of middle wage jobs in the region is growing and the share of households that are above the ALICE threshold has increased. Fewer households are also living below the poverty line than five years earlier.
2. However, this analysis also confirms that Orlando’s growth continues to prove highly inequitable. Income and child poverty gaps between demographic groups have widened, and barriers to opportunity such as food insecurity and car ownership remain.
3. The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have intensified existing inequities by having an uneven impact on different groups. The pandemic also has the potential to have a lasting negative impact on workforce capability due to its effect on education and mental health.