National Economic Dataset

The evidence base behind our local economic tools for government and business. Updated monthly, it provides a detailed and consistent picture of how local economies are performing across every place in Australia. Our granular, micro-geographic data helps decision-makers identify trends and build evidence-based business cases for investment, policy and economic growth. It delivers accurate, timely and actionable insights for understanding and shaping local economies.

Whether you’re planning a local economic development strategy, modelling infrastructure demand, or assessing economic drivers and challenges, our data gives you the insights to make informed, confident decisions.

How to Access

BENEFITS

What makes our National Economic Data unique?

Unlike other data sources that rely solely on infrequent Census updates, we integrate multiple local inputs and benchmarks against official employment and economic totals. This ensures greater accuracy, fewer blind spots, and more timely insights.

Identify local strengths, gaps and opportunities

Our data aligns closely with real conditions that are happening in any location, helping you understand workforce dynamics, sector growth and emerging opportunities

In‑depth, accurate and credible insights

Built from trusted sources such as ABS Census, Labour Force Survey, ATO income and Centrelink data, to provide insights you can rely on.

Track economic change over time

Enables robust regional benchmarking and time-series analysis to compare performance across areas and identify trends.

Trusted by government and industry

Used by hundreds of councils, RDAs, federal and state government and consultants.

Helps build a complete view of place

Aligns with other .id datasets to provide a cohesive view across population, housing, economy and community insights to support integrated, place-based decision-making.

Current economic insights, updated regularly

Annual updates to data including jobs, FTE jobs, output, value-add, imports, exports and local sales ensure your evidence-base reflects today’s realities, not last year’s assumptions.

Detailed view of local economy sectors

Our dataset includes economic data for 87 industry sectors, enabling targeted decision-making and tailored strategies.

Powers economic impact modelling

Beyond the data, the National Economic Dataset powers economic modelling tools including our Economic Impact Model, Event Impact Calculator, Location Quotient Tool and Shift Share Analysis.

METRICS

What metrics does our National Economic Data include?

Employment by industry, occupation, and full-time equivalent (FTE)

Local Gross Regional Product (GRP) and economic output

Business counts, sizes, and industry classification

Commuting flows and place-of-work analysis

Economic diversity, resilience, and dependency indicators

Labour force participation and workforce characteristics

What metrics does our National Economic Data include?

Modelling

Advanced economic impact modelling

Our economic datasets also power our impact modelling tools that assist business and government in economic strategy and decision-making backed by an advanced evidence-base.

Economic Impact Model
Advocate against industrial closures, test job-creation scenarios and validate investment in important local industries by showing the value of local businesses to your economy.

Event Impact Calculator
Quantify the direct and flow-on economic benefits of proposed events with independent event impact modelling.

Location Quotient Tool
What does your community do better than anywhere else? The Location Quotient Tool makes it easy to identify trade specialisations, so you can deliver targeted strategies to support local jobs.

Shift Share Analysis
Growth or decline in any industry is caused by a mix of local, industry-specific and macroeconomic impacts. The Shift Share Analysis tool provides a clear value for each, so you can formulate targeted strategies and isolate the impact of local economic development initiatives.

maintenance

How our National Economic Data is maintained

Updated monthly, our data draws on timely inputs from the ABS, NIEIR, Tourism Research Australia, Jobs and Skills Australia and more. Sources are regularly validated and modelled to ensure spatial consistency across time. Outputs are accompanied by expert interpretation to help users make sense of the data and its implications.