IMPLAN Data Sources

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What are IMPLAN’s Data Sources?

Economic data is collected by a vast number of government entities. While each individual group assembles data within their own framework, IMPLAN’s data scientists convert this raw data into a consistent form for your individualized use. So what sources provide the foundation for IMPLAN?

Main Raw Data Sources



  • National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs) – Serve as governing controls for the majority of data elements (e.g., total U.S. employment, GDP, capital investment, personal consumption expenditure (PCE) spending)
  • Benchmark I-O tables – Source of production functions
  • Regional Economic Accounts (REA) – Source of employee compensation (EC) and proprietor employment and Income
  • GDP-by-State Series – Source of output for farming, manufacturing, and other sectors
  • Other data from BEA: Past-year deflators, State-level tax data, County-level personal income, Net commuting rates

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

  • Census of Agriculture – Source of county-level farm-sector output
  • National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) – Source of state-level value of production for farm sectors
  • Economic Research Service (ERS) – Source of state-level sales for farm sectors

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

  • Quarterly Covered Employment and Wages (QCEW) Data – Source of county-level wage and salary employment and income
  • Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) – Allows breaking out of the NIPA PCE data among IMPLAN’s 9 household income categories

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

  • County Business Patterns (CBP) – Source of establishment counts by employment size-classes to the zip-code level
  • Annual Survey of Manufacturers (ASM) – Source of output and inventory for manufacturing sectors
  • U.S.-level construction sector output
  • U.S.-level foreign exports and imports
  • Census of Government Finances – Source of revenue and spending by state, county, and city governments

Source: U.S. Census Bureau



Download a comprehensive report on IMPLAN’s data and functions

Main Raw Data Sources



  • National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs) – Serve as governing controls for the majority of data elements (e.g., total U.S. employment, GDP, capital investment, personal consumption expenditure (PCE) spending)
  • Benchmark I-O tables – Source of production functions
  • Regional Economic Accounts (REA) – Source of employee compensation (EC) and proprietor employment and Income
  • GDP-by-State Series – Source of output for farming, manufacturing, and other sectors
  • Other data from BEA: Past-year deflators, State-level tax data, County-level personal income, Net commuting rates

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

  • Census of Agriculture – Source of county-level farm-sector output
  • National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) – Source of state-level value of production for farm sectors
  • Economic Research Service (ERS) – Source of state-level sales for farm sectors

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

  • Quarterly Covered Employment and Wages (QCEW) Data – Source of county-level wage and salary employment and income
  • Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) – Allows breaking out of the NIPA PCE data among IMPLAN’s 9 household income categories

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

  • County Business Patterns (CBP) – Source of establishment counts by employment size-classes to the zip-code level
  • Annual Survey of Manufacturers (ASM) – Source of output and inventory for manufacturing sectors
  • U.S.-level construction sector output
  • U.S.-level foreign exports and imports
  • Census of Government Finances – Source of revenue and spending by state, county, and city governments

Source: U.S. Census Bureau



Download a comprehensive report on IMPLAN’s data and functions

Supplemental Raw Data Sources



Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) 

  • Source of railroad employee data (since they are not covered by Federal unemployment insurance programs)

United States Forest Service Federal Timber Sales Data

  • Source of county-level, current-year data with no non-disclosures for federal timber sales

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System

  • Source of higher education employment

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Statistics Division

  • Source of commercial fishing output

Read about IMPLAN’s data sources and collection processes

Supplemental Raw Data Sources



Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) 

  • Source of railroad employee data (since they are not covered by Federal unemployment insurance programs)

United States Forest Service Federal Timber Sales Data

  • Source of county-level, current-year data with no non-disclosures for federal timber sales

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System

  • Source of higher education employment

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Statistics Division

  • Source of commercial fishing output

Read about IMPLAN’s data sources and collection processes

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IMPLAN Data

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The Most Comprehensive Economic Dataset at Your Fingertips

Thousands of data points from more than 90 sources make up the most transparent and relied-upon portrait of the economy.

What IMPLAN Data Contains



IMPLAN data contains 546 sectors representing all private industries in the United States (anything from grain farming to surgical appliance manufacturing) as defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes. Employment, employee compensation, industry expenditures, commodity demands, relationships between industries, and more are collected to form IMPLAN’s ever-growing database.

See where IMPLAN data comes from

What IMPLAN Data Contains



IMPLAN data contains 546 sectors representing all private industries in the United States (anything from grain farming to surgical appliance manufacturing) as defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes. Employment, employee compensation, industry expenditures, commodity demands, relationships between industries, and more are collected to form IMPLAN’s ever-growing database.

See where IMPLAN data comes from

Thorough and Extensive Data



IMPLAN data is compiled from a sprawling assortment of disclosed government sources to form Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs) which provide a complete portrait of the economy for every zip-code, county, and state in the U.S.


Examine regional economic data including population, households, the Shannon-Weaver Diversity Index, and total value added (GDP).


Review industry-specific and institutional demand economic data including industry output, employment, and value added data (like employee compensation, proprietor income, other property income, and taxes on production and imports).


Investigate county-to-county trade flows for every commodity found in the IMPLAN sectoring scheme.

Collected Responsibly and Presented Transparently



With IMPLAN there are no secrets. See the background data used to build your input-output models and calculate your impacts. You can even view the detailed multipliers.

Constructing our expansive database of regional economic data requires compiling information from a variety of economic sources. All sources are openly stated and credited. 

Because some sources do not release new data annually, IMPLAN’s data team estimates the missing pieces and converts them into one consistent format.

See what goes into producing IMPLAN data

Collected Responsibly and Presented Transparently



With IMPLAN there are no secrets. See the background data used to build your input-output models and calculate your impacts. You can even view the detailed multipliers.

Constructing our expansive database of regional economic data requires compiling information from a variety of economic sources. All sources are openly stated and credited. 

Because some sources do not release new data annually, IMPLAN’s data team estimates the missing pieces and converts them into one consistent format.

See what goes into producing IMPLAN data

Always Up-to-Date



IMPLAN data is updated annually, so you can be sure that your models are based on the most recent data available.

As the economy evolves, so does IMPLAN’s data. Along with every new data release, IMPLAN uses contemporary methodologies and a standardized sectoring scheme to update prior data sets.

Check out the latest data release notes

Always Up-to-Date



IMPLAN data is updated annually, so you can be sure that your models are based on the most recent data available.

As the economy evolves, so does IMPLAN’s data. Along with every new data release, IMPLAN uses contemporary methodologies and a standardized sectoring scheme to update prior data sets.

Check out the latest data release notes

Your Data Pairs With IMPLAN



Your expertise makes IMPLAN smarter. Bring your own local knowledge into IMPLAN and customize the data for a representative and tailored analysis.


IMPLAN offers the flexibility to adjust the ratio of input purchases to output; to alter the amounts of each input required by an industry; to set values for industry sales, employment, and payroll; and more. IMPLAN lets you be as involved in the analytical process as you choose.


Review the background data to augment with your own additional known data.

See just how easy it is to make the data work for you

Ready to see IMPLAN in action for yourself?



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