Let's be honest. Most facility expansions and relocations do not involve moving a significant number of "rank and file" workers. Those folks will already be living in the community you'll be setting up shop in, and most of them like where they live (even if the rest of the civilized world may not think much of the town). So why worry about quality of life as a site selection criteria?

Well, it all depends on how you define quality of life.

A couple of quality of life surveys conducted so far in 2002 by consultants rate cities on everything from socio-economic outlook and leisure opportunities to populations of woodland birds. These surveys are interesting, but not critical to making crucial expansion and relocation decisions.

Expansion Management's Quality of Life Quotient, however, benchmarks metro areas on crime rates, quality of schools, housing affordability, tax rates, overall cost of living, and other essential measures.

Our list doesn't include categories like proximity to the opera, average number of ballet recitals per month, or driving distance to the nearest poetry reading. Chances are your shop foreman doesn't care, and neither does the forklift operator on the swing shift. Consequently, neither should you.

That's why we define quality of life in terms most Americans do - affordability, safety, good schools and reasonable traffic. We also look at it as an employer would: labor demographics (the potential work force), community colleges (work force training), and cost of living and wage rates (lower wages equal lower operating costs).

After all, employers aren't monsters. They want their employees to be able to share in the American dream. However, if a $30,000 a year worker in one metro would need to make $40,000 a year to afford the same house in another metro, wouldn't you (as an employer) rather be in the less expensive community?

Why not take the $10,000 you saved and use it for something else, or just let it fall to the bottom line?

Expansion Management's editors measured about 50 "quality of life" indicators to see how the nation's 329 metro areas (called Metropolitan Statistical Areas, MSAs) stack up. Even smaller communities, with populations of less that 100,000, come under the Expansion Management QLQ microscope, so executives can compare up-and-coming communities like West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, Fla. (one of our 2002 Five-Star Metros) with larger cities, like Indianapolis, Ind. (another Five-Star Metro).

As with all of our studies, we're always looking to improve them. The QLQ is no different. All new for 2002: Expansion Management's Quality of Life Quotient includes measures for traffic congestion and highway safety for the nation's 329 metros.

How do the metro areas compare in traffic density per lane of traffic, vehicle density per capita, and number of truck accidents on their roads?

The final tally of Five- and Four-Star Communities shows the best places for manufacturing companies to succeed and thrive. The Top 50 MSAs earned the prized "Five-Star" distinction, while the next 60 metro areas received a "Four-Star" accolade.

The two newest MSAs - Auburn-Opelika, Ala. and Corvallis, Ore., - are not included in our calculations because there is still insufficient data in each of the comparable areas. With the 2002 QLQ, small- to mid-sized company executives can compare the type of living and working environment they are likely to encounter in communities throughout the United States.

Breaking down the numbers

To come up with our final rankings, we grouped our findings into six major categories: standard of living, housing affordability, peace of mind, adult education, work force employability, and traffic congestion and safety.

The most heavily weighted category in the QLQ addresses the ability of families and individuals to meet their financial needs and desires. Median family income, per capita income and per capita disposable income levels were combined with cost of living adjustments, state and local tax burdens, family and individual poverty levels, and unemployment rates.

Homeownership is everyone's dream in America, or at least the ability to afford to rent a decent house or apartment. Our next most heavily-factored category ranked the metros on housing affordability for median-income families, as well as fair market rents for two-, three-, and four-bedroom rental housing units.

We used data from the National Association of Home Builders for housing affordability, and from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) for fair-market rentals.

Quality of Life, as we see it, is about more than just money, however. Things like peace of mind are also important to employers, their workers, and their families. In the peace of mind category we tabulated the latest FBI rankings on violent crime and property crime, as well as Census Bureau data for population densities.

Communities with lower population densities may have more open space, parklands and similar amenities to woo new economic development, and the 2002 QLQ rates those metro areas accordingly. Population density in the United States is now about 73 people per square mile, according to the Population Reference Bureau. With the population growing 0.6 percent per year, look for continuing changes in the QLQ city rankings for population density.

Education is an equally important factor in our standings because it determines whether or not a community is able to sustain a high quality work force to ensure a business' success in future years. In the education category we included measures of the number of community colleges and universities operating in MSAs, and whether any advanced degree programs were offered at those institutions.

Other factors in our rankings include unemployment rates, the percent of the population from ages 18-35, and transportation measures, such as airport accessibility and road safety and congestion. We consulted dozens of sources for the data, including the U.S. Census Bureau and other government sources, as well as Editor & Publisher's "Market Guide 2002," and other private-sector statistics sources.

So, where do you find the right site for your firm's future expansion or relocation - especially if yours is a mid-sized company (100-500 employees)? All you need to know is right here in our annual Quality of Life Quotient.