SHOW ME:
Many of 2025’s economic challenges are expected to persist in 2026, and some Extended Metropolitan Areas will be more resilient to headwinds than others. Find out which EMA economies the American Growth Project expects will expand the most.
Jan 29, 2026
Housing Affordability in North Carolina
The Kenan Institute has developed a housing affordability index for North Carolina counties. The index and accompanying interactive map allow users to compare current county-level affordability metrics and see how these measures have changed over time.
Nov 17, 2025
Understanding the Importance of County-Level GDP
Forecasting gross domestic product is a challenging practice, but because GDP can reveal so much about the growth of a local economy, forecasts are an important guide in making policy and business decisions.
North Carolina’s growing skills gap reflects a national challenge, but the state’s robust job market is creating high-paying opportunities for skilled workers. We talked to four experts about how to successfully scale the state’s apprenticeship and training efforts.
North Carolina adopted its County Tiers System to direct economic support toward struggling counties. An examination shows the nearly 40-year-old system is increasingly misaligned with both economic reality and stakeholder needs.
At the institute’s annual Conference on Market-Based Solutions for Reducing Wealth Inequality, a diverse group of experts from business, government and academia discussed practical solutions for improving upward mobility.
New business formation fuels local growth in North Carolina and offers real-time data to guide policy and forecasting, according to new research from the Kenan Institute, the North Carolina Collaboratory, and the Secretary of State.
The Kenan Institute's projected 2025 GDP growth rates for 150 Extended Metropolitan Areas across the United States anticipate a slowdown, but our data indicate that all of those areas will see GDP growth this year.
Mar 19, 2025
Manufacturing: Regional Strengths and Shifts (Redux)
We update an August 2023 piece in which we explain why manufacturing remains essential for economic growth and how manufacturing in the US today incorporates both regional shifts and “stickiness” in traditional strongholds.
25
Jun
2024
The Kenan Institute and Fifth Third Bank will present insights from our new collaboration, “Empowering American Cities,” at a breakfast Tuesday, June 25, in Charlotte.
Why Has Housing Become So Unaffordable?
In the past few years, buying a home has become much more expensive for the typical North Carolina household. We look at a few of the reasons why costs are rising so sharply for new buyers.