Local

A blog from BEA Director Vipin Arora

A consistent theme throughout the history of BEA and its forerunners—driven by significant public and policymaker demand—is the expansion of our regional statistics. This expansion began with the publication of our first annual statistics on state income payments in 1939, and has continued since.

A blog post from BEA Director Vipin Arora

An old boss of mine was fond of a BEA product that many of our users don’t know about—regional price parities (RPPs). He said regional price parities are BEA’s most underappreciated statistic. While I love all our products equally—just like I love all my kids equally—I can’t help but agree that the RPPs are a gem that sometimes gets overlooked. I hope you won’t overlook the new RPP data coming Thursday, Dec. 12.

BEA's economic modeling tool that helps users analyze how a proposed project would ripple through a region's economy is now updated with new benchmark data.

State and local governments, civic leaders, planners, investors, and others use the tool to assess the economic impact of projects or events within their selected area. For example, building an apartment complex would require buying building materials from local retailers and wholesalers, leasing equipment, and hiring tradespeople. Employees of these and other local businesses would have additional wages to spend, perhaps on household needs or recreation.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased in 864 counties, decreased in 2,234 counties, and was unchanged in 14 counties in 2020. The percent change in real GDP ranged from 91.0 percent in Foard County, TX, to –29.0 percent in Skagway Municipality, AK. GDP estimates were impacted by the response to the spread of COVID-19, as governments issued and lifted “stay-at-home” orders. The full economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be quantified in the county GDP estimates, because the impacts are generally embedded in source data and cannot be separately identified.

How would expanding a community college, building a new factory, or increasing government spending on roads impact your local economy? BEA has a tool that can help answer questions like these.

Local planners, businesspeople, and policymakers use the Regional Input-Output Modeling System to predict the potential economic impacts of a variety of projects and events, even natural disasters like hurricanes. The modeling system, known as RIMS II, was updated March 30 with BEA’s 2019 regional data. 

The first official economic growth statistics for all U.S. counties show which industries contributed to growth from region to region and in counties large, medium, and small across the nation.  

These new Bureau of Economic Analysis statistics feature every county's gross domestic product – the value of goods and services produced within the county – and how much the inflation-adjusted GDP grew or decreased from the previous year. The statistics, for 2001 through 2018, also show industries' contributions to the change in each county's GDP.;

Interested in comparing buying power in your metropolitan area to another? Then, you’ll want to look at the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ latest batch of regional price indexes.

Some highlights from BEA’s recent news release, featuring our 2017 Regional Price Parities:

The Bureau of Economic Analysis has completed its comprehensive update of state and local area personal income statistics, some reaching back as far as 1929.

Comprehensive, or benchmark, updates are performed approximately every five years. They provide the opportunity to incorporate newly available and revised source data and to introduce improvements in statistical methods. BEA’s full time series are updated to provide consistent comparisons over time.