The Commerce Department has announced the launch of a website that provides access to rich, open data about regional economies and clusters, to help regions, economic developers, and businesseswith decision-making.
It says the US Cluster Mapping Registry project (http://clustermapping.us), is an economic initiative based at Harvard Business School’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness and supported by the US Economic Development Administration. Broadly, it is intended to strengthen economic competitiveness by understanding the economic performance of clusters and regions across US.
Commerce defines clusters as geographic concentrations of interconnected industries and supportive organizations that make regions uniquely competitive for jobs and private investment. It said the new site goes beyond earlier cluster mapping data by leveraging broader, more granular, and more up-to-date datasets, and by integrating detailed statistical analyses using county-level business data, including metrics on regional economic performance and business environments.