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Each tool is unique and created to meet the needs of the project. It is important to us that we stay ahead of the data curve.

Digital Distress

Economic distress measures—typically looking at unemployment and income levels—are used to inform planning and implementation around economic development and quality of life. However, a similar measure looking at digital inclusion does not exist. For this reason, we have developed a new metric called digital distress. Digital distress is defined as areas (tracts) that had a 1) high percent of homes with no internet access or accessing the internet only through cellular data and a 2) high percent of homes with no computing devices or relying only on mobile devices.

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Digital Divide Index

The digital divide is the number one threat to community economic development in the 21st century. Public policy 101 argues that a problem needs to be defined before exploring potential solutions.

View Digital Divide Index

Digital Equity Dashboard

Indiana's Digital Equity Dashboard, featuring 19 variables across categories like school-aged children, race, and household income, is a tool for counties to assess and improve digital equity. Users can identify areas for enhancement, set objectives, and compare percentages to regional, state, and national benchmarks. The dashboard serves as a strategic guide for promoting digital equity throughout Indiana.

View Digital Equity Dashboard

Dimensions of Poverty

Dimensions of Poverty is a website based on “Resilience to the Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty” research undertaken by PCRD, Economic Research Service of the USDA, and Purdue’s Agricultural Economics Department. The goal was to understand the individual, family, and neighborhood characteristics in causing intergenerational economic mobility in the US. The data products included a spatially harmonized socio-economic database for tracts and counties. The story map provides harmonized data for census tracts, counties, and regions for select poverty and socio-economic variables, such as persistent, high, and child poverty for the North Central Region of the US.

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Housing Study

PCRD tailors our housing studies based on each community’s unique needs. We may recommend a mix of qualitative and quantitative sources such as workforce data, housing assessments, and affordability profiles, in addition to conducting scientific community surveys and focus groups. Our housing studies showcase demographics, affordability, housing stock, and market analyses that local leaders use to gain insight into current and future opportunities.

IARC Data Dashboard

As the EDA University Center in Indiana, PCRD has developed and maintained an online data dashboard to guide the economic development activities of organizations that are part of the Indiana Association for Regional Councils (IARC). The website showcases a core set of indicators on each of the 15 IARC member regions, including industry clusters, population features, labor market indicators, broadband speeds, income and poverty measures, and more. The dashboard makes extensive use of Tableau for data visualization and allows users to copy images for inclusion in reports and PowerPoint documents.

View IARC Data Dashboard

Indiana County Data Snapshots

Data Snapshots are essential tools for needs assessments, Extension programming, and decision-making support. They provide a wide range of demographic, economic, labor market, broadband, and quality of life information. These snapshots are valuable for extension educators, community leaders, stakeholders, and others, offering insights into current conditions and opportunities within a county. To enhance usability, the data is presented using visual aids like charts, graphs, and maps, along with descriptions and interpretations of the data.

View Indiana County Data Snapshots

Industry/Occupation Clusters

The industry and occupation clusters explore the economic competitiveness of the regions from economic enterprises and human capital perspectives. The industry clusters have been defined based on the supply and value chain linkages. The occupation clusters have been defined based on the knowledge content of the occupations. Two different regions having similar levels of industry specialization, say biotechnical/biomedical cluster, may have unique concentrations of knowledge and skills. These are the results of two grants “Unlocking Rural Competitiveness: The Role of Regional Clusters” and “Crossing the Next Regional Frontier: Information and Analytics Linking Regional Competitiveness to Investment in a Knowledge-Based Economy.”

Job Earnings Index

The Job Earnings Index (JEI) created by the Purdue Center for Regional Development is an important tool for monitoring changes in the earnings of different occupations in Indiana. The index focuses on high- and low-earning jobs, and uses median hourly earnings of over 700 unique occupations to categorize jobs.

View Job Earnings Index

Measuring Communities

Measuring Communities houses a collection of data about military service members, veterans and their families. This data allows users to make informed decisions to help support the military population in their area. We recently compiled a report that provides an overview of military and veteran families across the nation.

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Rural Indiana Stats

Relevant data can be key to helping individuals, community leaders, elected officials and organizations make decisions for their communities and regions. To help these key audiences in Indiana with evidence based decision making tasks, Rural Indiana Stats (RIS) was launched as an interactive data and mapping website that would allow users to find key data anytime, anywhere, through any outlet.

View Rural Indiana Stats

Rural Opportunity Zones Initiative (ROZI) Program

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted by the U.S. Congress in 2017 included an important provision titled Opportunity Zones, an innovative approach to spur private sector investments in low-income, high poverty areas of the country. Some 156 Opportunity Zones (census tracts) exist in Indiana 46 of these are located in rural areas of the state. PCRD and OCRA, with grants from USDA RD, are delivering extensive training, technical assistance and coaching to six rural Opportunity Zones, with six new sites being added in 2020-21. The overall goal is to help these ROZI sites develop, market, and attract private sector investment in high priority targeted projects.

View Rural Opportunity Zones Initiative (ROZI) Program

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