Where our numbers come from

Our own price index

The core of every cost page: monthly rates collected directly from senior-living communities — rates they publish on their own sites and quotes they give us by phone or web form. Each price is stored with its facility, room type, care level, source type, and collection date. Collection rules are in the methodology.

Public datasets we build on

• CMS Care Compare (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) — nursing-home ratings, staffing, and inspection data, refreshed on the CMS release calendar.
• U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey — 65+ population and growth by metro, used for market context.
• State Medicaid rate schedules — published daily-rate tables for programs like Arizona’s ALTCS, hand-checked against the state’s current documents.

Citing our data

Journalists, researchers, and bloggers may cite Exploreist figures freely with attribution and a link to the page the number came from. Each page shows its verified date — please include it when citing. Need something we haven’t published? Ask.