The County Ranking of Economic Progress is a broadly defined composite measure of relative economic well-being.  Its construction has two major parts.  First, it is composed of four measures that describe the economic health of an area at a particular point in time.  Each of these components provides a unique gauge of the country's most recent annual economic health.  Second, the ranking is composed of five measures of economic change.  Thus, the County Ranking considers two items: the present relative health/well-being of the county; and, how the county's local economy has changed from one point to the next.

Note that there exists a lag in the production of the document.  This is due to the fact that part of the data (particularly the establishment employment) is not published until well after the end of the calendar year.

The 2007 County Rankings of Economic Progress for North Carolina
(published Sept 2008)

The 2006 County Rankings of Economic Progress for North Carolina
(published Sept 2007)