A new website offers comprehensive economic data for Wichita and the state of Kansas.
The website KansasEconomy.org provides trends, economic indicators and the most recent employment and population forecasts.
The Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University created the website to compile economic data from across the state in one place. The center’s director, Jeremy Hill, says the information is coming straight from government sources and will automatically update.
"The value of this, it’s going to be updated within an hour," Hill says. "It’s not going to be delayed, it’s going to be accurate, it’s going to be up to date. So you don’t have to worry about older data, and it’s formatted just for Kansas, so we’re looking at information that we care about in this state."
One example is the population forecast for Kansas. Research shows the state will continue to grow over the next 40 years. The Kansas City, Kansas, region is expected to have the largest growth in population.
The website also includes real estate trends, demographics and industry-specific trends and data.
Right now, much of the information is focused on Wichita and large cities. Hill says they hope to expand content to include all 105 Kansas counties by the end of the year.
He expects the website to be a resource for city, county and non-profit leaders as well as businesses and state agencies.
"There are a couple of neat aspects to this website," Hill says. "You can graph quickly by clicking on any single data element in there and it will create a graph for you automatically, and you can download more of the history of the data by going to the bottom right corner."
He says the center’s own research, such as the “misery index,” is also on the website. The misery index is an indicator measuring the impact of changing economic conditions on people.
--
Follow Deborah Shaar on Twitter @deborahshaar.
To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.
