A situational analysis examines the characteristics of a region relative to its surrounding region and other comparable regions in a variety of metrics across demographics and industry and is often used as the basis for long term economic development plans and investor site selection purposes.
Situational analysis’ can contain:
- Location quotients: A measure of the concentration of an industry (or other economic measures) relative to a larger region such as its province or country.
- Sector shift share analysis: While the location quotient examines the economy at a point in time, the sector shift analysis examines how various industry sectors in the region are evolving relative to its comparator regions. The combination of industry strength metrics with location quotients yields base and non-base industry metrics that measures industry significance to the local economy.
- Economic resilience metrics:
- Measuring diversification through Economic Complexity Indexes: metrics that demonstrate the diversification of industries but also the amount of knowledge embedded in each region
- Income equality: a measure of the distribution of economic resources across a region to determine how economic disturbances can be absorbed
- Housing affordability: Several metrics are available to demonstrate how affordable housing is across the region, particularly across the corridor
- Decentralization and centralization metrics:
- Industry: Metrics that measure the number of establishment and enterprise concentration within an industry
- Spatial industry combinations: It is important to study the way different occupations are spaced across the regions to determine if there are competitive structures or combinations to be identified. This can provide unique insights that the market may not otherwise be familiar with.
By way of example, this situational analysis was prepared for a detailed understanding of the population and economy of Peterborough & the Kawarthas relative to Ontario and other regions.