By John Laidler Globe Correspondent
The region known as MetroWest has a well-educated workforce, high median incomes, low unemployment, and a robust high-tech sector. The area boasts increasing diversity, impressive high school graduation rates, and declining crime rates.
But the cluster of communities west of Boston also has an aging population, scarce affordable housing, inadequate transportation options, rising income inequality and homelessness, and a wide disparity in educational outcomes.
That picture of a region with abundant strengths but also pressing challenges emerges from an innovative new online report released Wednesday by the Foundation for MetroWest.
Impact MetroWest features thousands of data points in areas ranging from demographics and the economy to education and cultural life. In addition to providing a comprehensive portrait of the region, the interactive website report also allows users to search statistics on their own communities.
Judy Salerno, executive director of the Natick-based foundation, said the report aptly describes the region as “a seeming land of plenty where some struggle to thrive.”
