The Code of Virginia calls for Planning District Commissions to collect and maintain demographic, economic and other data concerning the region and member localities, and act as a State Data Center affiliate in cooperation with the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC).

In keeping with this mandate, the HRPDC staff has produced the Regional Benchmarking Study and released it annually as a standing publication. In 2021, economics staff began updating the individual components of the benchmarking study on a rolling basis as publicly available data is released.

This benchmarking data includes a locality profile for the 17 jurisdictions as well as graphical illustrations for over 100 regional benchmarks covering the economy, demographics, real estate, transportation, education, government finances, and various quality of life indicators. Each graph is accompanied by a brief explanation regarding the purpose of the benchmark and the current condition in Hampton Roads.

The Regional Benchmarking Study is available exclusively online at: Hampton Roads Regional Benchmarking Study. Each section can be downloaded individually from clicking the associated title on the list, with an associated month and year listed directly adjacent describing when the data was most recently updated.