An Alternative Index for Quality of Life in Urban Areas

The purpose of this study is to provide an alternative procedure for ranking metropolitan areas. The computation utilizes the concept of Euclidean distance. This method allows differences and similarities to be expressed as n-dimensional distances from a composite ideal, where the ideal is chosen as the best score for each factor. The Boyer and Savageau index is computed by adding the ordinal rankings of the various factors to obtain an average. Pierce (1985) and Norris and Norris (1986) fault the ratings on the ground that such a procedure may produce a measure that is not reliable for comparisons. For example, a ranking of 1 for a specific factor in an area does not mean that the area is ten times as good as an area that is ranked 10 for the same factor. The distance measure, however, provides an absolute yardstick, and hence preserves the magnitude of the differences. This property allows classifications and comparisons of the areas to be based on accepted statistical considerations.