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Subjects › Economic Development › Economic Data Collection and Data Dissemination
Updated 06/2010

Economic Data Collection and Data Dissemination

Contents

Need for Economic Data

Before a community can develop policies for economic development, it needs to understand the nature of the local economy. Creating an inventory and profile by collecting data, then analyzing the data by evaluating the profile and inventory provides the factual basis for economic development goal setting and strategy development. Some of the resources for collecting that data are listed below.

In addition to collecting data understanding the local economy, communities need to present data about their communities to attract potential development. In a highly competitive environment, when marketing a community as a potential site for relocation or expansion of an industry or business, reliable, comprehensive data is needed that can be quickly provided to corporate location professionals. The International Economic Development Committee has devised a comprehensive site selection data template to guide communities with data collection, analysis and delivery. The end goal: to adopt the template as the industry standard for the site selection process. For more information see the IEDC Site Selection Data Standards.

Sources of Data

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Economic Data Collection and Data Dissemination Related MRSC Resources
MRSC Index – Community economic profiles, economic statistics