Economic Development

General Community Profiles

Community & Economic Development Toolbox, Penn State

Tools designed to help you address a number of important questions such as: What are the current employment conditions in your community, What parts of the local economy have been growing? Which industries have been declining, How does the local economy compare to other nearby economies? The state?, What are the factors leading to local employment growth? How do we identify new opportunities? This tool box was originally developed by Martin Shields who is now at Colorado State University.

Quick Facts from the Census - Census data at the county level

County Economic Profile -- Headwater Economics, click on socioeconomic profiles, a 40 page summary for each county in the United States

Community Economic Development Hot Report -- The CED HotReport provides community and business leaders speedy access to information tailored to economic development decision-making. It is a free, easy to use portal to instantly obtain detailed information for local and regional areas on a wide variety of topics from a multitude of sources.

EconData.Net -- 1000's of socioeconomic data sources available for counties

Industry and Employment Data by County

NAICS Business and Employment Data - County Business Patterns provides data on the total number of establishments, mid-March employment, first quarter and annual payroll, and number of establishments by nine employment-size classes by detailed industry for all counties in the United States and the District of Columbia.

On the Map - Provides detailed maps showing where workers are employed and where they live with companion reports on age, earnings, industry distribution, and local workforce indicators. A total of 45 states are currently featured showing data for five years (2002 through 2006).

Kentucky State Data Center -- Provides data on the economy, education, housing, poverty, etc for the state of Kentucky

Workforce Kentucky -- Kentucky data on the labor force, unemployment rates, industry, and wages

Quality of Life Data

Quality of Life Indicators -- Health, crime, environmental, education data sources by county

Health Status Indicators -- A county level health data set with a comparison to peer counties across the country

Education Data -- Education variables from 1986 by county, district or school. Includes enrollments, teacher information, drop out rates, and school finances

Kentucky Health Facts -- County health profiles in Kentucky

Special thanks to the University of Wisconin's Center for Community and Economic Development for providing a summary of these links.