Vital Signs is an annual community check-up conducted by community foundations across Canada that measures the vitality of our cities, identifies significant trends, and assigns grades in areas critical to our quality of life.

How you can use this information
Each of us can use these indicators to:

• Become Informed about Victoria’s economic well-being, educational attainment, health, safety, environment, arts and culture and more.
• Examine our choices and actions and how they contribute to these indicators.
• Discuss the indicators with our friends and colleagues.
• Examine the policies and activities of organizations, businesses, agencies and institutions that we’re affiliated with to see how they affect these trends.
• Identify an area where you would like to make a positive difference and get involved.
• Give to an organization that is helping to make a difference.

Indicator Selection

Three factors determine the indicators
that are published in Vital Signs each year:

1. As part of a national initiative that has 11 community foundations from across Canada publishing Vital Signs reports this year, we all agree to publish one common indicator for cross-country comparison. This is the first indicator in each issue area.
2. The results of an Indicator Survey that was publicly promoted and available in May/June of this year is the second factor that determines the indicators published. This represents what our community generally thinks is important to report on. Almost 250 people responded to this on-line survey.
3. The third factor is data availability – whether the data exists to report out on the suggested indicator. Vital Signs uses existing data collected from a variety of sources. The source used in the 2007 Vital Signs are linked or noted behind each indicator.