The Opportunity Zones Index (OZI) is a project of Develop LLC, in partnership with Esri, a leading mapping & spatial data analytics firm, to assess and rank nearly 8,000 Opportunity Zones (OZs), providing the first comprehensive economic baseline analysis of OZs in the U.S. The OZI is a relative measurement, exclusively made up of low-income communities in America.

These low-income communities were specially designated as OZs in 2018 by the Governors of every state and five U.S. territories, as well as the Mayor of the District of Columbia, following the creation of this bipartisan community development program by Congress through the 2017 tax reform legislation. In total, OZs cover roughly 12% of the U.S. and 35 million Americans.

The underlying OZI data comes from projections from Esri Demographics based on the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey. These metrics include:

2018-2023 Population Growth Rate

2018 Total Retail Sales

2023 Median Household Income

2023 Median Home Value

2018 Bachelor's Degree Rate

2018 Unemployment Rate

OZI scores are derived from the average ranking of each OZ, equally weighing all six of these indicators, and then normalized as a national percentile of all OZs. OZI scores range from zero to 100, with 100 being a designation of the OZ that scores the highest across the dataset.

OZs with stronger baseline economic fundamentals, compared to other OZs nationwide, are associated with the blue end of the map's spectrum, and OZs with weaker baseline economic fundamentals are associated with the red end of the map's spectrum. By clicking on any of the OZs on the interactive map, you can find its index score, as well as the raw data underlying that result. The map also includes icons indicating the locations within OZs of Medicaid-eligible hospitals, as well as four-year universities and graduate schools.

The OZI captures OZs within the 50 states and DC, but does not include data for U.S. territories. Individual OZ data has been aggregated, averaged, and indexed at the county, state, and metropolitan levels. All states, as well as metros and counties with at least 10 OZs, are ranked in the data tables below.

The OZI does not measure the "investability" of any individual OZ, which requires several additional layers of analysis and evaluation. However, the hope is that the OZI will provide a tool for wealth managers, fund managers, real estate developers, business investors, and other stakeholders to gain a much deeper understanding of where there is "opportunity" in communities they may have never seriously explored before due to the surprising pockets of potential the OZI reveals in every state and metro area.