As part of a project to study growing business clusters in rural areas across the country, Indiana University formed a partnership with several organizations to create an extensive on-line database of economic information at their Unlocking Rural Competitiveness website.  The site features tools for accessing economic statistics from various reputable data collection agencies (e.g., Census, BLS), and allows users to generate customized data sets for counties and regions nationwide.  These features are very useful for quickly gathering economic data on regions, saving the user from calculating regional figures manually using the figures from each county in the region.

Under the ‘Data’ heading, users can request customized data profiles from several categories, including demographic information and detailed economic statistics, such as income levels or employment in various industry clusters.    After selecting a category, the site prompts the user to select a geographic area and the specific statistics to view.  For instance, under the ‘Census of Employment and Wages’  category, the user can choose between statewide, county or regional figures, whether they want wage data or employment data, as well as the type of industry for which they want wage or employment statistics.  The user may choose to view the data on screen or download the data in a variety of formats.

The most innovative and useful feature of this site is the Custom Region Builder which allows users to create a customized region for which to calculate the desired statistics.  The user creates a region by selecting counties from the state(s) of interest, either by name or by clicking on a map.  As a quick reference, basic statistics about the region are displayed below the map as each additional county is added to the region.  Once the user saves the final selection, the site allows the user to generate detailed statistics for the customized region.  Under any data category, simply select ‘Custom Regions’ in the ‘General Area’ field, and select the saved region in the ‘Select Geography’ field.   The aggregated statistics for the region are calculated automatically from the county data and displayed as a single, regional figure.  Conversely, statistics for each county within the region can be displayed side-by-side by un-checking the ‘group’ box.