Explore EDD regions

Before you start

• EDD regions is an overlay inside Explore, not its own sidebar item. The EDD regions button is on the toolbar at State level; from a county's detail panel you reach the same overlay through View district →. See Explore a location for how levels and the toolbar work.
• An Economic Development District (EDD) is an EDA-designated region — an area the U.S. Economic Development Administration has designated for coordinated economic development, usually spanning several counties. Each district publishes a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) naming its priorities.
• Those strategies are coded into 16 fixed categories in Incenti's SLEDS dataset (State & Local Economic Development Strategies), so districts can be searched, filtered, and compared like any other metric. Where a district's strategy has not been coded, the product says No SLEDS coding located.
• Not every state has EDA-designated districts. Delaware, Rhode Island, and Wyoming organize economic development at the state level instead and have no EDD region on record.

Steps

Turn on the overlay

1. At State level, click EDD regions in the toolbar. This swaps the whole screen to the district view: 404 EDA-designated districts instead of states, each colored by its business priorities. Click EDD regions again to return to the state view exactly as you left it; nothing about your state search, filters, or selection is affected.

Choose what the map colors by

2. Use the dropdown next to the search box to choose Each region's top priority (the default — every district colored by its single dominant category) or a specific category under Emphasis on one category, which shades every district from a low to a high share of that category's goals — the legend reads "Low" and "High" followed by the category name — and greys out any district with no goals in it. The legend at the bottom of the map always shows No coding (gray, for a district with no coded goals) and No EDD designation (state-level) (dashed amber, for Delaware, Rhode Island, and Wyoming). Clicking one of those three amber states clears your selection and shows No EDA-designated Economic Development District is on record for that state. in the right rail.

Switch between Map, Table, and Split

3. Click Map, Table, or Split, same as any other Explore level. The table has two tabs:

   • Scores (the default) lists District, State, EDA region, Counties, Coded, and Top priority.
   • Category shares replaces those with a percentage column for each of the 16 business-priority categories.

   Sort on any column header. The default sort is Coded, highest first.

Use the Top districts overlay

In Map and Split view, a Top districts box sits at the top right listing five districts by name. In the default color mode it ranks districts by how many coded goals they have; when you have chosen one category, it ranks by that category's share instead. It follows your current filters, and clicking an entry adds that district to your selection.

Search for a district

4. Type into Search EDDs… to match a district by name, its two-letter state code, or the acronym of its name (for example "NCTCOG" for the North Central Texas Council of Governments). Search always checks every district, even while filters are narrowing the map or table, and returns up to 10 results (No matches when there are none). Pick a result to add it to your selection.

Filter by priority or coverage

5. Click Filters to open the filter panel:

   • Prioritizes — check one or more of the 16 business-priority categories (Administration, Broadband, Business Climate, Business Development and Assistance, Business Finance, Community Support, Education, Entrepreneurial Development, Industry Cluster Development, Infrastructure & Project Development, International Trade and Investment, Manufacturing, Recovery & Resilience, Technology-Based Economic Development, Transportation Infrastructure, and Workforce Development). A district matches if any checked category is among its top three priorities — not merely present in its coding.
   • Ranges — sliders for Counties served and Coded goals.
   • Reset clears one metric's range, the Reset under Prioritizes clears that group, Reset all clears everything, and Done closes the panel.

   The toolbar carries a live match count — 8 of 404 districts match — whether the panel is open or not, and districts that do not match fade on the map rather than disappearing.

Select a district

6. Click a district on the map, or click its row in the table, to select it. Clicking a second, third, and so on district keeps adding to your selection instead of replacing it; click a selected district again to remove it, or click the X button in the toolbar to clear the whole selection. Hovering a district on the map previews it in the right-hand panel, which reverts to your last selected district when you move away.

   The panel shows:

   • A header with the district's name, headquarters city and state, and an EDA … region line — an EDA administrative region, not a geography — plus stat tiles for Counties and Coded goals.
   • Business Priorities — a bar per category the district has coded goals in, largest first.
   • Goals & actions — the district's coded goal, objective, and action item text, grouped by category (largest group first); each item shows its most specific text with a shorter parent goal underneath, marked ↳. This section loads the first time you open a district's panel, showing Loading goals… and then No goals available for this district. if there are none.
   • Benchmarks — the district's top five categories by share of coded goals, each with a national percentile written as an ordinal (for example 87th) and the category's national share (nat. 12%), so you can see whether a priority is unusually strong here or typical everywhere. The percentile pool is coded districts only; districts with no coding are not ranked against.
   • Export and Report buttons, plus Compare N regions once two or more districts are selected.

Compare districts

7. Select two or more districts and click Compare N regions in the detail panel. That opens the full-screen comparison directly — there is no compact comparison tray for districts the way there is at State, Metro, County, and City level. Comparison caps at 5.

   The full comparison shows:

   • A card per district with its name, a N counties · ST line, and its coded goal count as the headline number.
   • Coverage rows for Counties served and Coded items.
   • A share breakdown across all 16 categories, best value in green, with a ▲ marker on any other district whose share in that category is at least 1.5 times the national average (hover it for the multiple).
   • A Best fit by project type summary scoring each district against six project types — Advanced manufacturing, Technology & R&D, Logistics & distribution, Workforce-intensive operations, Rural & broadband-dependent, and Trade & export — by adding up its shares in that type's signal categories.
   • A narrative insight banner.

   Removing districts until only one is left exits the comparison and returns you to the overlay.

Export

8. Select one or more districts, then click Export (in the toolbar, the grid, or the detail panel) to download a CSV — up to 10 districts at a time. The detail panel's button exports whichever district's panel is open, ticked or not. The file has two sections: a per-district summary with a percentage column for every business-priority category, followed by a flat table of every exported district's individual goals, objectives, and action items. A single-district export is named after that district (for example sleds-tx-north-central-texas-council-of-governments.csv); a multi-district export downloads as sleds-edd-priorities.csv. If the goal text cannot be fetched you will see Couldn't load goals for the export — try again. See Export and CSV formats.

Create a report

9. With a selection made, click Create report (toolbar) or Report (detail panel) to open a District Priorities report: one district produces a single-district report, two or more produce a comparative report. More than five selected quietly uses the first five. With nothing selected you get Select a district — or tick two to five to compare — then create a report. You can also start a District Priorities report directly from the Reports tab by searching for a district there. See Create and export Insights reports for the Reports flow in general.

Find the district for a state or county

10. Outside the overlay, a state's or county's own detail panel includes a Regional priorities (EDD) section. A county maps to exactly one district, so a county shows a single card; a state lists every district in it, ordered by coded goal count. Each card names the district, how many counties it serves, its top four categories, and a View district → link that jumps straight into the EDD overlay with that district selected and its panel open. A state with no districts reads This state has no EDA Economic Development Districts — its economic development is organized at the state level.

Districts without a map shape

Seven of the 404 districts have no polygon on the map: the Puerto Rico districts, and the Connecticut districts still keyed to the state's pre-2022 counties while the boundary layer carries its planning regions. They are fully present in search, the table, the detail panel, comparisons, exports, and reports — they simply cannot be clicked on the map.

What happens next

• Turning the overlay off returns you to the state view exactly as you left it; your search, filters, and selection there were never touched. Turning it back on gives you a fresh EDD screen — district selection, filters, and color mode all reset.
• Goal and action-item text for a district loads the first time you open its panel or export it; it is not preloaded for every district up front.
• EDD selections, filters, and the color-mode choice are not written into the page URL, so reloading the page or sharing a link does not restore them.
• Switching geography level while the overlay is on turns the overlay off.

Common questions

Q: Where is the compact comparison panel for districts? A: There isn't one. At State, Metro, County, and City level a comparison first appears as a panel in the right rail; for districts, Compare N regions in the detail panel opens the full-screen comparison directly.

Q: Why can't I see my district on the map even though it's in the list? A: Seven districts have no map shape — those in Puerto Rico, and the Connecticut districts still keyed to the state's pre-2022 counties. They appear in search, the table, the detail panel, comparisons, exports, and reports; they just cannot be clicked on the map.

Q: Why are Delaware, Rhode Island, and Wyoming striped amber? A: Those three states have no EDA-designated Economic Development District at all — they organize economic development at the state level. Clicking one shows a note saying so instead of a district panel.

Q: Why does the Prioritizes filter miss a district I know has Broadband goals? A: Prioritizes matches a district's top three categories only. A district with a small share of Broadband goals will not match even though those goals exist. Use the Category shares table tab, or the map's category color mode, to find every district with any share in a category.

Q: What does the ▲ next to a percentage in the comparison mean? A: That district's share of coded goals in that category is at least 1.5 times the national share — a genuinely distinctive emphasis rather than a marginally higher number. Hover it to see the exact multiple.

Q: What does the national percentile on a priority mean? A: It ranks that district's share of coded goals in that category against every other district that has coding. It is not a rank of the district itself, and districts with no coded goals are not in the pool.

Q: What does "EDA Austin region" mean — is that a geography? A: No. It is the EDA administrative region the district reports into, not a place you can look up in Explore.

Q: Why does my county not show up in an EDD? A: Every county maps to at most one district through a county-to-district crosswalk. If your county's state is one of the three with no EDA-designated district (Delaware, Rhode Island, or Wyoming), there's no district to map to. If your state does have districts but your specific county still shows no match, check the county's own Regional priorities (EDD) section, which states plainly when no district maps to it rather than guessing. Connecticut counties are the most common case, because the state's geography changed in 2022.

Q: Why do some districts have no priorities listed? A: A district shows "No SLEDS coding located" when its Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy hasn't been coded into the 16 priority categories yet. It still appears on the map and in search — colored gray for "No coding" — but has nothing to show in Business Priorities, Goals & actions, or Benchmarks until that coding is added.

Q: Where does the district data come from and how old is it? A: It comes from Incenti's SLEDS dataset, built by reading each district's published Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy and coding its goals, objectives, and action items into the 16 categories. It is refreshed when a new dataset is loaded rather than on a monthly schedule, and the product does not display a vintage per district. See Where Insights data comes from and how often it refreshes.

Q: Can I open the district's full CEDS document from here? A: No. The overlay shows the coded goals, objectives, and action items rather than linking out to the source plan.

Q: Why did my EDD filters reset when I turned the chip off and on? A: The overlay is rebuilt each time you turn it on, so its selection, filters, and color mode start fresh. Your state-level search, filters, and selection underneath are preserved.

Q: Can I export the district list? A: Yes. Select up to 10 districts and click Export anywhere it appears (toolbar, grid, or detail panel) to download a CSV with a per-district summary and every exported district's individual goals and action items.

Q: I want to compare a state with an EDD, or an EDD with a county. Can I? A: No. Comparison only works within one geography level or overlay at a time — you can compare EDD districts with other EDD districts, but not across the EDD overlay and the state or county view. Use a state or county's Regional priorities (EDD) section to see the connection between a geography and its district without leaving that level.

Related

• Explore a location
• Compare locations
• Insights overview and data coverage
• Export and CSV formats
• Where Insights data comes from and how often it refreshes
• Create and export Insights reports
• Ask Insights