Editorial & Corrections Policy
PlainRelocate is a data-first publication by PlainRelocate. This page explains how our content is produced, where the numbers come from, how we stay independent, and how to flag an error.
How our content is produced
Every metro and state profile, score, and ranking on PlainRelocate is generated programmatically from official federal datasets. The numbers are loaded directly from the source, we do not hand-edit, round, or adjust the underlying figures. When a metric is unavailable at the city or metro level, we fall back to the most granular figure the federal source publishes (often the state average) and label it as such. We never fabricate or extrapolate values.
The explanatory writing on the site, guides, methodology, FAQs, and the short interpretive sentences on each page, exists to help readers understand what the data means. It is written to be accurate to the figures it describes; if the data and the prose ever disagree, the data is correct and the prose is the bug.
Our standards
- Derived values, the Life Score, LiveAbility Score, composite grades, percentile ranks, and computed comparisons like purchasing-power adjustments, are LABELED as our analysis, distinct from the raw source counts (rents, wages, crime rates, school counts) they're built from.
- No invented data. Where a value is unavailable for a metro or state, the page says so explicitly ("N/A" or "data not currently available"); we never substitute an estimate, a guess, or a value carried over from a different geography without disclosing it.
Where the data comes from
PlainRelocate draws on public data from nine federal agencies, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (cost of living), Bureau of Labor Statistics (wages), HUD (rents), FBI (crime), NCES (schools), Department of Labor (childcare), EPA (air quality), NOAA (climate), and FEMA (natural hazards) - joined at the metropolitan-statistical-area level, with metro definitions from the U.S. Census Bureau. The full source list, scoring weights, and known limitations are documented on our methodology page.
Independence
We do not accept payment, sponsorship, referral fees, or promoted placement from cities, chambers of commerce, real-estate firms, moving companies, or any entity covered on the site. Our only revenue is contextual display advertising served by Google AdSense, and advertisers have no influence over which metros we cover or how they rank. Scores are computed directly from federal data using the disclosed weights.
Corrections
If you spot a figure that misreads its source, a broken calculation, or an out-of-date dataset, we want to fix it. Our process:
- Report: Email hello@plainrelocate.com with the page URL and the specific figure that looks wrong.
- Verify: We trace the value back to its federal source and confirm whether it's a data error, a stale release, or a computation bug.
- Fix at source: We correct the database or pipeline, not just the one page, so every metro or state showing that figure heals at once.
- Note on next rebuild: The fix ships with our next data refresh; recurring or systemic issues get documented on the methodology page.
Who is responsible
PlainRelocate is an independent data-journalism studio. The team is responsible for the methodology, the explanatory writing, and the corrections process. We are not affiliated with any government agency.