2026 Community Leadership Visit – Data

The Indianapolis MSA remains more than four times the size of the Springfield MSA. Its larger metropolitan population supports a deeper labor pool, broader consumer market and more extensive regional infrastructure. The Springfield MSA’s smaller scale may support coordination and quality-of-life advantages, but similar percentage growth translates into fewer additional residents in absolute terms.

Springfield MSA

The metropolitan area added 24,748 residents through net migration, including 21,353 domestic migrants. Natural change contributed only 390 residents and international migration added 3,395 residents.

Indy MSA

The Indianapolis MSA added 81,856 residents through net migration and another 34,324 through natural increase. International migration was especially important in the Indianapolis MSA, contributing 61,882 residents.

Core Counties

Greene County, Missouri, grew because migration offset more deaths than births. Marion County, Indiana, by contrast, lost residents through net migration but continued to grow because births exceeded deaths. The Springfield MSA’s recent growth therefore depended more heavily on attracting residents from elsewhere, while the Indianapolis MSA benefited from both migration and natural increase.

Young Professionals (ages 25-39)

Residents ages 25 to 39 represented 21.1% of the Indianapolis MSA population in 2025, compared with 19.5% of the Springfield MSA population.

Springfield MSA

Greene County added the most residents from July 2020 to July 2025, but Christian, Dallas, Polk and Webster counties collectively accounted for 59% of the metropolitan area’s increase. Christian and Webster counties were especially important contributors, showing that regional growth extended beyond Springfield city and Greene County.

Indy MSA

Growth in the Indianapolis MSA was even more concentrated outside its core county. Marion County (Indianapolis) accounted for only 13.7% of the metropolitan area’s population increase, while Hamilton County alone contributed more than one-third. Hendricks, Johnson, Hancock and Boone counties also added substantial numbers of residents, showing a strong outward growth pattern.

The Indy MSA produced approximately $200 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023, compared with about $28 billion in the Springfield MSA. Despite the difference in scale, from 2010 to 2023, nominal GDP increased by 80.3% in the Indianapolis MSA and 79.6% in the Springfield MSA. Growth since 2020 was also nearly identical, at 31.5% and 31.2%, respectively. This suggests that the Springfield metropolitan economy broadly kept pace with Indianapolis’s rate of growth, even though the Indianapolis MSA continues to offer far greater economic scale and diversification.

Trade, Transportation and Utilities is the largest employment sector in both metropolitan areas. Since 2020, the Springfield MSA has outpaced Indianapolis in employment growth within Education and Health Services, Manufacturing, and Trade, Transportation and Utilities. Indianapolis recorded stronger growth in Construction, Leisure and Hospitality, and Government.

Missouri performs best in corporate and unemployment-insurance taxation, ranking fifth in both categories. It also ranks 12th in property taxes and 17th in individual income taxes. Missouri benefits from relatively low rates applied to broad income-tax bases and avoids several provisions the index views as harmful. Its weakest category is sales taxation, where it ranks 25th because combined state and local rates are comparatively high.

Indiana’s strongest performance is in property taxation, where it ranks fourth nationally. It also ranks seventh in corporate taxation and 14th in sales taxation, while avoiding a throwback rule, gross receipts tax and capital stock tax. Indiana’s absence of local general sales taxes supports its sales-tax ranking, although county-level income taxes reduce some of the advantage.

Location quotients provide another way to understand the composition of each metropolitan workforce. A location quotient above 1.00 indicates that an occupation represents a larger share of metropolitan employment than it does nationally, while a value below 1.00 indicates a smaller concentration.

The Springfield MSA’s strongest occupational concentrations are in health care and several essential service and technical fields with the Indy MSA has its greatest concentration in Transportation and Material Moving occupations.

Among metropolitan residents in the civilian population age 16 and older, 62.6% participate in the labor force in the Springfield MSA, compared with 67.8% in the Indianapolis MSA. The difference narrows among adults ages 25 to 54, but the Springfield MSA’s prime-age participation rate of 82.7% remains below the Indianapolis MSA’s 85.6%.

Snapshot of 1980-2025

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development building-permit data shows both MSAs experienced relatively strong permitting during the late 1990s and early 2000s, followed by a significant decline around the Great Recession. Residential construction later recovered, although neither metropolitan area has consistently returned to its early-2000s peak.

Indy MSA vs. Springfield MSA

From 2020 through 2025, the Indy MSA authorized a larger number of housing units annual in comparison to the Springfield MSA (12,000 vs. 2,100 units).

The Indy MSA reached its series high in 2001, when permits were issued for 17,453 housing units, including nearly 15,000 single-family units. Metropolitan permitting fell sharply during and after the housing downturn, reaching fewer than 5,000 units in 2012. Activity strengthened during the late 2010s and early 2020s, rising above 13,000 units in both 2021 and 2022. It later moderated to 11,463 units in 2025 but remained approximately 20% above its 2019 level.

The Springfield MSA followed a similar but more volatile pattern. It reached a high of 5,115 permitted units in 2005 before metropolitan construction declined substantially following the recession. Permitting remained below 2,000 units during much of the 2010s but increased to 2,638 in 2021, the strongest year since the mid-2000s. Activity subsequently fluctuated, falling to 1,770 units in 2025—a decline of 20% from 2024 but still 9% above 2019.

Single Family vs. Multifamily

From 2020 through 2025, single-family homes accounted for 72% of permitted units in the Indianapolis MSA and 75% in the Springfield MSA. In 2025 alone, the single-family share rose to 81% in the Indianapolis MSA and 80% in the Springfield MSA.

Multifamily permitting has been uneven because a small number of large apartment developments can add hundreds of units in a single metropolitan area during one year. The Indianapolis MSA authorized more than 4,900 multifamily units in both 2022 and 2023 before falling to 2,141 in 2025. The Springfield MSA experienced a similar surge in 2021, when it authorized 953 multifamily units, before falling to 357 in 2025.

Across all six metropolitan, county and city geographies, occupied housing units increased faster than the total housing stock from 2010 to 2020. Vacancy rates also declined, including from 9.2% to 7.6% in the Springfield MSA. This suggests that part of the additional housing demand was accommodated by filling previously vacant units rather than solely through new construction.

Within Springfield city and Greene County, growth in occupied housing units was primarily renter-driven. Renter-occupied units increased by approximately 25% in both geographies, while owner occupancy declined in Springfield city and grew only slightly in Greene County.

The figures represent net changes in the housing stock, not the number of homes constructed. Construction and demolition can both affect the final totals.

The comparison suggests that renter incomes improved more quickly relative to market rents in the Springfield MSA. In the Indy MSA, rent growth exceeded renter-income growth between 2021 and 2024. However, Zillow’s typical rent reflects the overall metropolitan rental market and is not necessarily the rent paid by the median renter household, so the figures should not be interpreted as a direct household cost-burden measure.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Home Ownership Affordability Monitor shows that homeownership affordability weakened significantly in both metropolitan areas after 2020. HOAM measures whether a median-income household within an MSA can afford a median-priced home after accounting for principal and interest, current mortgage rates, property taxes, homeowners insurance and private mortgage insurance.

An affordability index of 100 or higher indicates that the estimated annual cost of homeownership remains within the HUD standard of 30% of median household income. A value below 100 indicates that the median-priced home is unaffordable to the median-income household.

The timing of affordability drops reflect a combination of long-standing housing-supply constraints and rapidly changing financial conditions. Following the Great Recession, housing construction remained historically low, contributing to a national shortage of millions of homes.

During the pandemic, strong demand placed additional pressure on the limited supply. Affordability then worsened further in 2022 as the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to address inflation. Higher mortgage rates increased monthly payments for prospective buyers. They also discouraged existing homeowners with low-rate mortgages from selling, further limiting the number of homes available for purchase.

Estimated monthly homeownership costs have nearly doubled in both metropolitan areas since the early 2020s. The Springfield MSA’s estimated monthly cost increased from roughly $1,100 around 2020 to approximately $2,050 in 2026. The Indianapolis MSA’s estimated cost increased from approximately $1,200 to more than $2,500. Principal and interest account for most of the increase, although taxes and insurance also contribute.

Severe housing cost burden (spending more than half of household income on housing) is shown for metropolitan, county and city geographies and is concentrated among renters.

Public-safety figures refer specifically to crimes reported by the Springfield Police Department and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, rather than the complete metropolitan areas or counties. Springfield ultimately recorded the larger decline, although its 2025 reported rate remained higher.

The metropolitan, county and city differences shape consumer spending, housing affordability, savings and households’ ability to absorb rising costs.

At the metropolitan level, the Indianapolis MSA also reports higher median household income across each racial and ethnic group shown. The size of the difference varies across, but the pattern is consistent. This indicates that the metropolitan income gap is not limited to one demographic group.

The Springfield urban area was less expensive for groceries, transportation and utilities, while the Indianapolis urban area reported lower housing and health-care index values.

The cost-of-living comparison uses the Springfield, Missouri, and Indianapolis, Indiana, urban areas rather than the complete metropolitan areas. These figures should be interpreted as a comparison of participating urban communities rather than a complete measure of metropolitan affordability.

Both metropolitan areas exceed the national high school completion rate.

Among metropolitan residents age 25 and older, 39.5% in the Indianapolis MSA hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 32.8% in the Springfield MSA. The national rate is 36.9%.

This difference suggests that residents of the Springfield metropolitan area are more likely to face financial barriers when seeking medical treatment, managing chronic conditions or receiving preventive care.

Springfield-Branson National Airport maintained stronger year-over-year passenger growth from 2023 through 2025, while Indianapolis International Airport returned to more modest growth after recovering its larger base. The longer-term difference remains route depth: Indianapolis International offers 50 nonstop destinations and 11 airlines, compared with 13 destinations and four airlines at Springfield-Branson National.

Indianapolis International’s larger passenger base and route network provide substantially greater connectivity, while Springfield-Branson’s growth demonstrates rising demand for local air service.

Despite their greater reliance on automobiles, Springfield MSA workers generally experienced shorter commutes. Nearly half of Springfield MSA commuters reached work in less than 20 minutes, compared with about 38% of Indianapolis MSA commuters. Workers in the Springfield MSA were also less likely to have commutes lasting 30 minutes or longer.

The difference was more pronounced between the principal cities. Among workers living in Springfield city, 3.9% walked to work, compared with 2.2% in Indianapolis city. Springfield city’s average one-way commute was six minutes shorter than the average in Indianapolis. These city-level travel times represent an everyday quality-of-place advantage, even though both communities remain largely dependent on private vehicles.

Bus Ridership

According to the 2024 American Community Survey, only 0.60% (Indy MSA) and 0.30% (Springfield MSA) of workers (age 16+) relied on public transportation for work. When comparing the cities, public transportation usage increases to 1.2% (Indy City) and 0.6% (Springfield City).

Springfield ridership increased from 772,000 trips in 2020 to 1.1 million in 2025, while Indianapolis rose from 5.7 million to 6.6 million. Indianapolis remains the larger transit market, but Springfield has shown steadier growth over the period.

This difference reflects a stronger convention, business-travel, major-event and visitor demand, in-part supported by a more robust downtown convention and events center. Hotel performance figures refer to the CoStar-defined Springfield and Indianapolis lodging markets, which are market areas rather than city or MSA statistics.

Census Bureau business data provide a separate metropolitan-level measure of the lodging industry. In 2023, the Indianapolis MSA had 320 traveler-accommodation establishments employing 7,277 workers, compared with 88 establishments and 1,559 workers in the Springfield MSA.

Dining and hospitality-business figures are reported at the metropolitan level. In 2023, the Springfield MSA had 902 restaurants and other eating places and 56 drinking places. Together, these industries supported approximately 20,000 metropolitan employees.

The Indy MSA had 3,842 restaurants and other eating places and 202 drinking places, supporting close to 92,000 employees. Its absolute totals were more than four times those of the Springfield MSA, broadly reflecting the difference in metropolitan population.

After adjusting for population, the two metropolitan areas were much more similar. The Springfield MSA had approximately 209 food-service and drinking establishments per 100,000 residents, compared with about 204 in the Indianapolis MSA. Employment was also close after adjusting for population, at approximately 41 food-service workers per 1,000 residents in the Springfield MSA and 43 per 1,000 in the Indianapolis MSA. The Indianapolis MSA therefore offers much greater total dining scale and variety, while the Springfield MSA supports a comparable hospitality-business concentration.