What is the National Economic Resilience Data Explorer?

In partnership with the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), Argonne developed the National Economic Resilience Data Explorer (NERDE) to help a variety of users across the country with local economic recovery and resilience analysis. The NERDE consolidates information and data on economic distress criteria, COVID-19 impacts to local economies, and the existence and emergence of industry clusters.

What Does the NERDE Include?

The NERDE consolidates a wide range of publicly available data about local and regional economic conditions. The searchable information is displayed at the Economic Development District (EDD) and county levels in two separate dashboard tools. Within each dashboard the data is presented in 7 distinct tabs:

1. Key Indicators highlights special need and economic distress indicator criteria. This includes persistent poverty, rurality, and more.
2. Demographics allows users to view the distribution of demographic attributes across the selected EDD, and within the composite counties.
3. Workforce provides users with unique insights into labor force participation and unemployment within the EDD and at the county level.
4. Economy contains information about GDP and employment concentration by industry, as well as GDP growth rate across multiple sectors.
5. Industry tells the story of industry concentration within a county or an EDD. Users may analyze employment, establishment, and wages through the provided location quotient information.
6. Risk and Resilience provides users with information about community risk and resilience indicators, as well as hazard ratings for each county.
7. COVID-19 highlights COVID-19’s impacts on counties, EDDs, and states.

Why Is the NERDE Important?

The NERDE provides a single, easy-to-use platform to access data on economic distress, employment and gross domestic product, clusters of industries, and ongoing COVID-19 impacts for the more than 3,000 counties across the nation, as well as for every EDD. The dashboard’s main page tracks near real-time impacts to local economies during the COVID-19 pandemic and provides insight into the recovery over time. It also provides an important regional perspective on economic health and vitality, allowing community leaders to design and implement projects more strategically.

How Can the NERDE be used?

Community leaders can use the NERDE to inform local and regional economic development plans and initiatives. In addition, it can help jurisdictions evaluate their potential eligibility for EDA assistance.