This is part of a series of articles written in partnership with the University of Minnesota Community Development. Look for more articles in this series in the coming months.
In this post, we explore YourEconomy, a dataset created by the University of Wisconsin that provides detailed information on business activity across the United States.
Dataset name: YourEconomy
The dataset includes:
- The number of existing businesses in an area
- Counts of businesses opening, closing, moving in, or moving out
- Top industries and types of jobs
- Year-over-year changes in business activity
Data from the tool can be filtered by geography (nation, state, metro, county, ZIP code, or census tract), year, and industry or occupation using NAICS codes. The online dashboard also includes tools that allow users to explore data by year, change over time, and comparisons to state or national trends.
To show how YourEconomy can be useful, we’ve answered some common questions that communities, economic developers, and members of the public might ask when exploring business activity in their area. Each question aligns with one of the dashboard's main features, and for this post, we’ve used data from St. Louis County, Minnesota, as an example.
What did business activity look like in St. Louis County in 2024?
The first tab in YourEconomy’s dashboard offers several visualizations highlighting changes to the county’s economy in the selected year—everything from job creation to business growth to owner demographics. One of the clearest graphics shows how many businesses started, closed, moved in, and moved out of a region (see Figure 1 below).
Figure 1. Change in Establishments in St. Louis County, 2024
As shown in the figure, St. Louis County saw 183 business starts and ten businesses move into the area, compared to 128 closures and nine businesses move out—a net gain of 56 establishments. This visual summary, color-coded and easy to interpret, gives users a quick sense of whether a local economy is growing or shrinking.
How has the economy changed over the past ten years?
The "Change Over Time" tab in YourEconomy’s dashboard allows users to explore long-term trends in business activity. The dashboard provides insights into changes for establishments, jobs, and industries over the past ten years. One of the most straightforward graphics on the dashboard is a line graph showing the total number of establishments by year (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Total Establishments by Year, St. Louis County
As shown in the figure, St. Louis County experienced a period of growth in business establishments between 2014 and 2019, reaching nearly 226,000 establishments in 2019. Then, the number of establishments fell dramatically in 2020 and continued to slide until hitting a low point in 2022—around 202,000. This decline aligns closely with the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Establishment numbers began to rise again in 2023 and 2024, though they remained well below pre-pandemic levels. This visualization is just one of several on the “Change over Time” tab. Other visuals break the change in establishments down by source: new business starts, closures, and moves in and out. The same visuals are available for changes in employment.
How does St. Louis County compare to the rest of Minnesota?
YourEconomy also allows users to compare their county’s economic performance to the state and/or national economic conditions using the “Compare to State” and “Compare to US” tabs. Within these dashboards, side-by-side graphics present annual trends for the county and state (or nation). Additional graphics show the percentage change year-over-year for establishments and jobs.
The dashboard shows the economic situation in St. Louis County mirrored that of the state—experiencing steep losses in 2020 and gradual stabilization in the years that followed. As of 2024, neither area had fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels, in terms of establishments or jobs. However, both regions saw positive year-over-year growth in 2023 and 2024.
YourEconomy Strengths
YourEconomy offers a simple, customizable way to explore economic trends in any community across the U.S. Its intuitive layout allows users to quickly view key metrics—like employment growth and business activity—and compare them to other counties, states, or the nation. The graphics in the tool are also easy to download and embed into presentations or documents.
One of this tool’s greatest strengths is its ability to show the underlying components of change. Rather than just reporting net gains or losses, it breaks down where that change is coming from—whether through business starts, expansions, closures, or relocation. That level of detail is rarely available from other public data sources and can be incredibly valuable for local leaders, economic developers, and researchers trying to understand the forces driving growth or decline in their region.
If you are interested in accessing data from YourEconomy, contact us at the BBER ([email protected]) or the University of Minnesota Extension Community Development Department for more information.