IMPLAN Blog

International students have long been important contributors to the U.S. economy, not only through tuition payments but also through their everyday spending in the communities where they study. Beyond classrooms and campuses, international students support local restaurants, retail stores, healthcare providers, housing markets, and more.

But as new restrictions and heightened uncertainty around international enrollment take hold, the potential loss of this spending represents a significant risk to both local economies and the national economy. 

This IMPLAN analysis examines what happens if foreign student spending in the U.S. declines. To account for near-term uncertainty, we modeled the effect of a 10% reduction in student expenditures.

Across the U.S., rural communities hold immense untapped potential, but they often face an uphill climb when it comes to attracting the capital needed to realize it. Opportunities abound in logistics hubs, industrial redevelopment, workforce housing, and renewable energy infrastructure, but many rural projects are overlooked by institutional investors.

Why? Time and again, the same challenge emerges: a lack of clear, localized data.

Environmental responsibility is no longer optional – it’s essential. Global mandates are rapidly reshaping the landscape of climate disclosure, and IMPLAN is uniquely positioned to help organizations navigate it with confidence. In the US and abroad, new regulations require scope-based reporting. IMPLAN now empowers climate-conscious decision makers with powerful environmental data for US-based data offerings, capturing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by industry and region, and connecting them directly to economic impact results.

We’re pleased to announce the release of IMPLAN’s Time Series Data: your key to unlocking deeper understanding with historic consistency.

Time Series Data empowers you to move beyond one-year snapshots and start uncovering long-term economic trends with clarity and confidence. Whether you're analyzing regional economic growth, industry shifts, or policy outcomes, our Time Series Data gives you a foundation to build on.

Designed to provide more accurate, consistent, and transparent economic analysis from 2001 to 2022, our Time Series Data gives you the tools you need to understand economic impacts with more precision than ever before.

Recent economic headlines show a mixed bag for the U.S. economy. According to Reuters, U.S. retail sales fell more sharply in May 2025 than economists expected. Meanwhile, manufacturing output barely moved, reinforcing concerns about slowing momentum. But what do these numbers actually mean in terms of economic impact?

When you’re delving into economic analysis, you'll often encounter North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes. NAICS codes (pronounced like “snakes” without the “s”) are essential for categorizing businesses and understanding economic data. 

In today’s blog, we’ll break down what NAICS codes are, how they correspond with IMPLAN sectors, and why they matter for your economic impact analysis.

It’s important to keep an eye on economic diversity, especially in times of economic uncertainty and when supply and demand are shifting. The Shannon-Weaver index is a powerful tool for measuring how evenly or unevenly the employment in any region is distributed among its industries. In today’s blog, we’re exploring how the S-W index works in IMPLAN and what it means for your economic impact studies.

So, you’re hoping to gain insight and quantify the impact of an industry, a new or existing business, expected growth or changes, or a specific event to the economy of a particular region. Where do you even begin?

Local events that bring communities together for holidays or regional celebrations often become annual traditions deeply intertwined with an area’s identity. In recent years, however, some localities have halted events like holiday parades, block parties, and July Fourth fireworks due to increasing regulations and rising costs. The immediate savings are beneficial. However, the significant, positive effects these events have on local economies are being lost in the process. While few studies exist regarding the impact of non-tourist, community events on economies, the framework exists to reliably analyze their effects. Before jumping into the event analysis methodology however, there are several factors to assess.

Late in the summer of 1949, Wassily Leontief fed the 25-ton computer the last of the stiff paper punched with precisely-placed holes. The machine at Harvard University now had hundreds of thousands of data points about the United States economy.