Economics: National Ocean Watch

• ENOW Frequently Asked Questions
  • Coastal States
  • American Samoa
  • Guam
  • Northern Mariana Islands
  • Puerto Rico
  • Puerto Rico (Spanish)
  • U.S. Virgin Islands
  • U.S. Virgin Islands (Spanish)
• ENOW Geographic Footprint
• ENOW Sectors and Industries Crosswalk Table
• Fast Facts: Economics and Demographics
• Infographic: What is the Marine Economy?
• Introducing the Open ENOW Dataset
• Socioeconomic Data Summary
• Video: How to Access ENOW Data (view an audio description version)

• Dive into the Ocean Economy of the Pacific Territories
• The Ocean Economy for the Caribbean Territories
• Economic Report: Marine-Dependent Buisnesses in the U.S. Territories
• NOAA National Report of the U.S. Ocean and Great Lakes Economy
• NOAA Report of the U.S. Ocean and Great Lakes Economy: Regional and State Profiles
• Historic Reports On The U.S. National and Regional Marine Economy
• The National Significance of California’s Ocean Economy
• ENOW Hawaii: Exploring the Hawaii Ocean Economy Through a Deeper Dive into the ENOW Dataset

• Facts about the Ocean and Great Lakes Economy
• The Ocean Economy: We Thought it was Big – Turns Out, It’s Bigger
• Economic Indicators and the Hunt for the Big Number
• ENOW Plus: Go Fish!
• Fun in the Sun
• GDP, Real GDP, and Chained (2005) Dollars
• Reasons to Care About the Oceans and Great Lakes
• Speed Dating with the Coastal and Ocean Economies
• Suppression: The Mystery of the Vanishing Data
• The Ocean Economy: It’s Big and Growing!
• What’s in a Job
• A Tale of Two Coasts

• Econ 120 Video Series
  Explains complex economic concepts in everyday terms
• Podcast : Diving Deeper into the Ocean Economy

Recommended Citation: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Economics: National Ocean Watch (ENOW) Data. Based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Junta de Planificación de Puerto Rico, and U.S. Census Bureau. Charleston, SC: NOAA Office for Coastal Management.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis revises its gross domestic product (GDP) estimates each year for data in its time series. ENOW GDP values for all years of data are updated annually to reflect these revisions. In addition, the bureau benchmarks its entire GDP account every five years to better reflect the evolving nature of the U.S. economy. This benchmarking involves making changes to what is included in different industries, as well as classifying new and emerging industries. The current benchmark for the GDP industries is 2017.

NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management acknowledges the many organizations that helped guide the development of this data set (contributing partners are noted with an asterisk):

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) generated gross domestic product (GDP) estimates for the coastal and marine economies. Further, NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management accessed data from the bureau’s Marine Economy Satellite Account to generate GDP for the various marine economy sectors of the U.S. territories.*

The Bureau of Labor Statistics generated data on establishments, employment, and wages from its Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) for the coastal and marine economies.*

The American Samoa Power Authority provided data on establishments, employment, and wages for American Samoa’s ocean-dependent utility sector.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands’ Department of Lands and Natural Resources provided wages and GDP for the ocean-related government sector.

Guam’s Bureau of Statistics and Plans provided coastal and marine expenditures across Guam’s government agencies. This included capital, operations, personnel, utilities, and miscellaneous expenditures within various agencies and departments.

The Guam Power Authority provided establishments, employment, and wages in Guam’s ocean-related utility sector.

The Junta de Planificación de Puerto Rico generated gross domestic product estimates for the six core ENOW sectors across Puerto Rico: living resources, marine construction, offshore mineral resources, marine transportation, ship and boat building, and tourism and recreation.*

Northern Marianas College provided data pertaining to its ocean-related grants since 2015. This data was used by the project team to generate research and education data.

Establishment, employment, and payroll data for the U.S. territories are sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns data.*

The project team accessed data from the U.S. Virgin Islands’ Office of Management and Budget’s proposed executive budgets, which contain data on personnel and fringe expenditures in the Department of Planning and Natural Resources.

The University of the Virgin Islands provided a list of its ocean-related projects and their award amounts since 2019.