EDIS (Economic Development Information System) - From NC Dept. of Commerce
County profiles, Region profiles, Industry Profiles, State Comparisons, Commerce Maps.
County profiles include demographics; workforce and education; income, housing & poverty; announced jobs & investments; employment & wages by sector; top manufacturers; top non-manufacturing employers; taxes, sales and services; county map.

Employment Security Commission of North Carolina - ESC
ESC provides a wealth of economic data available at the county level. Choose link for "Labor Market Information." Some highlights:

Log Into North Carolina (LINC)
"The most valuable Web resource for NC statistical data." Over 1300 data items, most are available for all 100 counties. Historical data and projections, 1960s to 2030. Interactive custom queries and preformatted county reports. Broad topic areas include: Population and Housing; Vital Statistics and Health; Social and Human Services; Law Enforcement, Courts, and Corrections; Environment, Recreation, and Resources; Energy and Utilities; Government; Employment and Income; Business and Industry; Agriculture; Transportation.

North Carolina State Demographics
State and county population estimates by age, sex, and white / non-white. Municipal estimates. County projections to 2030 for population, growth, density.

Census Data Sources for North Carolina - From The NC State Data Center
This site provides quick and easy access to profiles and reports for NC counties and other geographies. Highlights include: commuting reports, migration reports, occupation reports.

Federal Data Sources

Local Area Personal Income - From the Bureau of Economic Analysis
This is the Web version of REIS (Regional Economic Information System). Includes personal income; wage and salary estimates; county and regional profiles, farm income (1969-2005). Detailed income and industry earnings and employment for NAICS (2001-2005) and SIC classifications (1969-2000); BEA Regional Fact Sheets provide brief narrative descriptions of an area's personal income using current estimates, growth rates, and a breakdown of the sources of personal income. REIS is available on CD-ROM for 1969-2004 in Davis Reference [Davis Reference EDOCS C59/024:969-2002/CD]

Population Estimates Program - (Bureau of the Census)
Provides 2000-2006 county-level estimates by age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin and components of change.

State & County QuickFacts - North Carolina - (Bureau of the Census)
" Quick, easy access to summary facts about people, business, and geography ."

Decennial Census

• American Factfinder
  Census 2000 data and maps for all Census geographies to the block level, and Census 1990 data and maps to the block-group level.

  • For detailed data choose "Data Sets" at left.
  • For overview, enter a city / town, county or zip code in "Fact Sheet" box.
  • How do I navigate the American Factfinder website? (MOVIE!)

• CensusCD Neighborhood Change Database (NCDB) Long Form from GeoLytics.
  Available from Davis Reference Electronic Resources, in CD cabinet number 6 organized alphabetically by Title. This product allows users to choose the variables they want and extract them at the tract level. This product simplifies the comparison by providing 1970, 1980, and 1990 data in 2000 boundaries, and normalizes the data so that the variables between the four censuses are comparable, even though the questions- or the ways in which respondents were instructed to answer the questions- changed between the two censuses. Data can be exported in dbf format or shapefile format. GeoLytics Products are installed on E-Docs machines 1, 2, and 3. Exported data can be saved to disc or sent to campus AFS via FTP. See our Guide to Using GeoLytics Census CD-Rom Products.

  Important: Although this product is very useful because the changing boundaries between censuses are taken into account, it does not take into account the fact that the entire nation was not divided into tracts for all census years. If the geographic area of interest was not divided into tracts for the selected date, the program will return a value of 0(!). Always use caution when comparing censuses! Read Some words of caution for those who wish to make comparisons between censuses. See our online movie, "Demo of How to Use the CensusCD Neighborhood Change Database". Additional information is available in the product's documentation, provided on the CD.

• Historical Census Browser - From the University of Virginia
  Selected variables from 1790 to 1960 Censuses. Includes county level data.

• Census of Population and Housing in Print
  Davis Library has the Census in print from 1790 to 2000 (except 1800 and 1810) [Davis Reference Row 12]

American Community Survey (Bureau of the Census)
Beginning August 15 2006, Census will release ACS 2005 data on social and demographic characteristics for the nation, all 50 states and the District of Columbia, every congressional district and all counties and places with populations of 65,000 or more.

County and City Data Book (Bureau of the Census)
A supplement to the Statistical Abstract of the United States, County and City Data Book provides statistics on a variety of social and economic areas including: Demographics, Health, Crime, Education, Income, Poverty, Housing, Labor Force, Earnings, Farming, Manufacturing, Wholesale and Retail Trade, Taxable Service Industries, State and Local Government, Voting.

• County and City Data Books - Historical (University of Virginia)
  This resource provides access to the 1944 through 2000 County and City Data Books. Users can create custom printouts and/or customized data subsets (subsets only available for 1988-2000).

• County and City Data Book (Print)
  [Davis Library Reference HA202 .A36]
  Latest issue at the Reference desk, earlier issues in Reference Bay 11. Library has 1947 - 2000.

• 2000 County and City Data Book (Web)

County Business Patterns(Bureau of the Census)
County Business Patterns provides data on the total number of establishments, mid-March employment, first quarter and annual payroll, and number of establishments by nine employment-size classes by detailed industry for all counties in the United States and the District of Columbia. Data are excluded for self-employed persons, employees of private households, railroad employees, agricultural production workers, and for most government employees.

• County Business Patterns (Bureau of the Census)
  County Business Patterns by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 1998-2005,and by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)1994-1997.

• County Business Patterns From University of Virginia
  County Business Patterns by 2 digit SIC industry grouping 1977-1997, and 3 digit NAICS 1998-2001.

• County Business Patterns on CD-ROM
  Davis Library has CBP on CD-ROM from 1986-2002. [Davis Reference EDOCS C3.204/4]

Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) (Bureau of the Census)
SAIPE is designed to provide more current estimates of income and poverty than the most recent decennial census. Selected income and poverty estimates for states and counties for 1989, 1993, 1995 - 2004, and for school districts for 1995, 1997, 1999 - 2004.

Building Permits - Monthly, by County and Place
"This application provides construction statistics by place and by county on new privately-owned residential housing units authorized by building permits. Data items include number of buildings, units, and construction cost for monthly new privately-owned residential Building Permits. These data are updated monthly." Data from 2000-2007.

Other Data Sources

EconData.Net
"Your guide to regional economic activity. We have 1,000 links to socioeconomic data sources, arranged by subject and provider, pointers to the Web's premiere data collections, and our own list of the ten best sites for finding regional economic data."

Sources for News and Context

Newsbank: North Carolina Newspapers Via Newsbank
Newsbank: North Carolina Newspapers features the full-text content of 14 North Carolina newspapers including:
The Asheville Citizen-Times (1999 - Present) The Chapel Hill Herald (1995 - Present);The Chapel Hill News (2000 - Present); The Charlotte Observer (1985 - Present); The Durham Herald Sun (1995 - Present); The Daily Advance (Elizabeth City) (2002 - Present); The Fayetteville Observer (1988 - Present); The Greensboro News and Record (1990 - Present); The Daily Reflector (Greenville) (1999 - Present); The Raleigh News and Observer (1990 - Present) Raleigh Extra (1995 - Present); The Rocky Mount Telegram (2002 - Present); The Star News (Wilmington) (2002 - Present); The Winston Salem Journal (1997 - Present).

ncnewspapersonline from ncpress.com
Listing and links to NC newspaper Web sites by city and county. Many provide free access to archives. Includes smaller local papers.

LexisNexis Academic
Provides full-text access to general, regional and international news, company news and financial information, legal information, and more. For North Carolina Sources: Select "U.S. News" from the "Select news category" pull-down list, then "North Carolina News Sources" from the "Select a news source" list. Important: Choose a Date range. Default is to previous six months.

Academic Search Premier
Covers popular and scholarly journal articles with many full-text articles from a wide range of academic areas including business, social sciences, humanities, general academic, general science, education and multi-cultural topics.

Search UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries Catalog
The Libraries hold many books on NC cities and counties. A keyword search on a county or city name and "economic" or "history" may prove useful. Examples of potentially useful subject headings include:

• Durham County (N.C.)
• Durham County (N.C.) -- Economic conditions.
• Durham County (N.C.) -- History.
• Durham County (N.C.) -- Planning.
• Durham County (N.C.) -- Social conditions.

North Carolina Periodicals Index From East Carolina University
Indexes North Carolina periodicals. No full text but many will be available in the North Carolina Collection.

NC Council of Governments
This is a clickable pdf Map that links to the 17 North Carolina Council of Government Regions Web sites. Individual sites have information on planning, economic development, workforce development, annual reports and more.

North Carolina Counties - From UNC-CH School of Government
Links to County Web sites, Economic Development Web sites.

North Carolina Cities and Towns - From UNC-CH School of Government
Links to City and Town Web sites.

North Carolina Economic Development Board
News, reports, strategic plan.

North Carolina Economic Development Organizations
Scroll down to list of links.

N.C. Rural Economic Development Center
A non-governmental organization devoted to NC rural issues. Includes news and reports. Rural Databank contains county profiles, topic profiles, trends and issues, custom query interface.