Economic strength is a combination of both the rate of growth and the consistency of the growth.
The database used for the analysis is maintained by the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis. The last year for which source data is available is 1998, which was released June 17, 2000. The Austin, TX MSA, ranked Number 1, did not have the fastest economic growth among the metropolitan areas over the entire term of the study nor even in recent years. The average annual growth rate and the average annual deviation are calculated for eighteen different categories in the economy for two different time periods. These categories are chosen as they reflect how the economy is behaving, not what is causing it to behave in a particular manner.