Washington Sea Grant developed robust human dimensions indicators that characterize the coastal communities. These indicators are intended to be part of the integrated ecosystem assessment that the Northwest Fisheries Science Center uses for ecological indicators.

• Economic indicators
  The figure below displays the five overarching categories of economic indicators: Demographics, Housing, Employment, Labor earnings, and Competitiveness. This study identified the top indicators to use in assessing a community’s economic health over time; these include: GRP, month to month income, income per capita, poverty rate, and job diversity. These indicators tell researchers and the community what’s going on and what’s important in a community.

  

 

• Social Well-Being Indicators
  The social indicator researchers selected each of the categories in the figure below to measure the overall well-being of a community. For each of these categories, Washington Sea Grant developed a handful of indicators, compared the information available for each indicator in each coastal county across various years, and developed a percent change over time. The data and changes can be updated in the future to show general trends in social well-being of a community. If you are interested in more details on a particular county or topic, you can access the report.

  

 
These projects help to ensure that the best available science is used to develop the marine spatial plan.
 
For more information, read the Economic Indicator final report or the Social Indicator final report.