Mapping Production Activity in Yukon: Experimental Estimates of Grid Square-Based Gross Domestic Product

In recognition that more geographically granular economic data improves our ability to understand the nature of production, support regional economies, and address emerging socio-economic and environmental problems, statistical agencies are increasingly asked to produce gross domestic product (GDP) estimates at finer levels of geography. This demand is being met in different ways around the world, with, for instance, the European Union producing GDP estimates at the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics level and the United States producing GDP estimates at the county level. While Canada produces GDP estimates for census metropolitan areas, it does not currently produce the same level of coverage for smaller geographies as does the European Union or the United States. This paper addresses this gap by developing subprovincial and subterritorial grid square-based GDP using the Yukon as a test case. The Yukon was chosen because its small resource- and government-based economy provides a challenging but comprehendible test of these fine-grained measures. This choice will also support ongoing work measuring the economies of circumpolar regions. With this in mind, the paper has three objectives. First, it introduces and discusses the benefits a fixed grid for measurement. Second, it identifies the types of data necessary to estimate GDP across a 1 km2 grid. Lastly, it produces a set of grid-based GDP estimates that serve to describe the geography of economic output in Yukon.