Open methodology
Every tool ships with a methodology note that a graduate student could replicate. No proprietary scoring black boxes, no unexplained weights, no data the user cannot trace back to a public source or a named LSI survey.
Pillar · Technology
Data makes policy and investment legible — at the district, county, parcel, and employer.
LSI builds proprietary tools that translate rigorous research into place-based investment strategies, with tools lawmakers, state officials, investors, and mission-driven organizations can run in minutes, for any community in the country.
Why LSI builds tools
Every county, district, and employer has its own strengths to build on and its own needs to meet. Our tools are built to empower both.
The American Dream does not live in a national average. It lives in a specific county, a specific congressional district, a specific employer, a specific parcel. Every major LSI research finding answers a question a working-class lawmaker or state official will eventually ask about one of those places: How many renters in my district are paying more than half of their income in rent? How many businesses in my state are about to change hands? What does a full-time job actually pay in my county, relative to what it costs to live there? The research answers those questions in general. The tools answer them for any zip code, any district, any employer, on demand, with sources the user can audit.
That is the design standard for every LSI data product. The methodology is published. The underlying sources are public. The outputs cite themselves. Any tool LSI ships can be used by a House staffer writing a markup, a state senator drafting a bill, a local small business owner looking for the right government program to apply to, a portfolio officer underwriting a working-class place investment, or an academic replicating the finding.
Data product
Live
535 Insights
20,000+ district reports, 36 data points each.
A congressional-district view of the working-class economy: small-business density, owner-age distribution, retirement-wave timing, housing cost burden, job quality, and working-class employment share. Searchable by state, district, zip code, or representative.
- Coverage
- All 435 U.S. House districts · 50 states
- Best for
- Member staffs, committee staffs, executive agencies
- Sources
- Census, BLS, IRS SOI, FRED, LSI-sourced
Data product
Live
Renter Wealth Index
A county-level score of renter financial precarity.
A composite index ranking all 3,143 U.S. counties on the financial position of their renter households: cost burden, savings, eviction exposure, and wealth accumulation gap versus local owners. Built to power the National Renter Wealth Coalition and to underwrite the LSI Housing research agenda.
- Coverage
- All 3,143 U.S. counties
- Best for
- Housing officials, place-based investors, mission-driven operators, renter advocates, economic development organizations, coalition members
- Sources
- ACS, HMDA, Census Pulse, LSI-sourced
Data product
Live
Access to Capital
An AI-powered SMB Capital Navigator.
More than 2,000 federal, state, and local financing programs representing over $70 billion in annual allocations remain underutilized because the systems meant to connect entrepreneurs with capital are fragmented and opaque. Access to Capital is an AI-enabled platform that surfaces personalized capital pathways for each entrepreneur based on industry, stage, location, and need, and guides them through the application process with pre-populated forms, document checklists, and direct connections to lenders, CDFIs, and expert advisors.
- Coverage
- Federal, state, and local programs
- Best for
- Small business owners, state innovation teams, CDFIs, lenders
- Sources
- SBA, SSBCI, CDFI Fund, state and local program data
Data product
Live
Access to Benefits
Security, dignity, and the freedom to plan for the future.
When people have access to stable jobs, meaningful benefits, and the ability to recover in a crisis, they gain more than a paycheck. They gain security, dignity, and the freedom to plan for the future. Access to Benefits is a tool that connects SMBs to benefits that serve working-class employees and their loved ones with the support they need to thrive. When families thrive, communities stabilize, local economies grow, and opportunity becomes something everyone can reach.
- Coverage
- SMB employer base, national
- Best for
- Small business owners, HR managers, benefit providers
- Sources
- Integrated HR and benefits APIs, LSI-sourced data
Research tool
Live
Federal Credit Lab
Modeling the federal credit programs that move the most money.
An analytical toolkit for the federal credit programs that capitalize the United States' real economy: SBA, USDA Rural Development, Export-Import, Title I, CDFI Fund, and the alphabet of agency loan-guarantee programs. Replicable models, subsidy-cost estimates, and program-by-program coverage maps.
- Coverage
- 12 federal credit programs · FY2010–present
- Best for
- Congressional staff, OMB, CBO, academic researchers
- Sources
- OMB Federal Credit Supplement, agency 10-Ks
Companion
Live
LSI Dashboards
Every major LSI publication, as a live data query.
The interactive companion to LSI's flagship research. Every major report ships with a dashboard that lets readers filter by state, district, industry, or demographic, export data, and cite the underlying figures at the geography that matters to them.
- Coverage
- One dashboard per flagship publication
- Best for
- Readers, journalists, academic replicators
- Sources
- Publication-specific, fully documented
How we build
Our guiding principles.
Smallest useful unit
Tools answer questions at the smallest geography or institution where the answer is real. Congressional district, county, zip code, or individual employer, never a national average when a local number exists.
Built for working-class places, everywhere
Working-class America is rural, suburban, and urban; coastal, mountain, and plains; red, blue, and purple. LSI tools are built to serve every working-class county and congressional district in the country, with the same methodology and the same level of detail, regardless of geography.
Public benefit
LSI tools and their underlying data are open-source and available for organizations working to advance economic mobility, opportunity, and resilience for working-class communities.
How it fits together
Research asks the question. Technology makes the answer portable. Coalitions carry it.
LSI works on three pillars. Every tool on this page ships alongside a research portfolio that explains the finding and a coalition or convening that carries the policy ask into statehouses and Congress.
Policy Portfolio
LSI Research
The publications that the tools on this page exist to power: policy reports, briefs, commentary, and testimony on housing, employee ownership, and job quality, anchored in the same working-class places thesis.
Browse research → Convenings and InitiativesLSI Coalitions
The places where LSI convenes policymakers, investors, operators, and community leaders to move research into action. Two coalitions are live today: the National Renter Wealth Coalition and the State Employee Ownership Caucus.
Explore the coalitions →Stay close to the tools
Monthly updates from LSI's technology pillar.
New tool launches, methodology releases, and dataset updates from LSI's data and engineering team.