Featured Number

$4.8 Billion - Taxable retail sales in Arizona during January 2010.

Monthly taxable retail sales rebounded to $4.8 billion in January after a dismal 2009. Still, Arizona has a long way to go to regain the level of retail sales that occurred in January 2008 ($5.6 billion).

  Announcements

Explore Data for the Intermountain West with a New Visualization Tool

Brookings Mountain West has released the latest issue of Mountain Monitor. The report notes that Arizona and other Western states continue to wrestle with an economy that essentially shows little or no progress toward recovery. Phoenix metro and Tucson are among the poorest performers in economic recovery due to the near-collapse of their real-estate markets, coupled with the recession and high-unemployment rate. For example, at -17.6%, Phoenix ranked only ahead of Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., in percent change in real House Price Index. Visit the Arizona Indicators Collaborations page to access Mountain Monitor and explore complementary data using a beta-version of WEAVE, a new visualization tool.

Reenrollment Study Shows Most Children Choose to Stay, Despite Options

The success of school choice policies is most often measured by the number of students who leave their home school to take advantage of choice options. But what about the other side of the equation? What about students who stay in the same school, even though other options are available? New analysis by ASU scholar Dr. David Garcia reveals that reenrollment rates for “excelling” schools are close to reenrollment rates for “failing/underperforming” schools. The weak relationship between school-quality indicators and reenrollment rates may indicate that parents rely on measures of school performance beside AZLEARNS labels. Read the latest issue of Policy Points to learn more.

New Economic Data

Visit the Economy tab for current information on the size of Arizona’s economy and measures of prosperity and productivity. Updated economic data is now available for per capita personal income, banking deposits, domestic net migration, and much more.

  Technical Tip

Having trouble viewing charts and graphs on the Web site? You may need to adjust your browser settings. See our troubleshooting page for detailed instructions.  For additional technical support, contact Joshua Connolly at (602) 496-0218 or joshua.connolly@asu.edu.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Please visit arizonaindicators.org and use our comment submission form or complete the Web survey to tell us more about your data interests and Web site preferences. You may also contact the project manager, Andrea Whitsett, at (602) 496-0217 or andrea.whitsett@asu.edu.

Arizona Indicators is a project of Morrison Institute for Public Policy. Major sponsors Arizona State University and the Arizona Community Foundation are strategic partners in the project’s development.