These Economic Base Studies cover the State of Arizona and its 15 counties. The purpose is to identify the State and county leading economic activities - export activities that are significantly larger in those region than in the nation. When the economic forces that mold a regional economy are understood, better strategic decisions for the region's economic future can begin to be made.

An economic base study is a description of an economy's structure and composition. Regional economic theory states that a local economy is driven by economic activities that import money into the region through the sales of goods and services to customers who do not live in the region. Such export activities differ from population-driven activities, which sell to and support the local population.

These economic base studies done for Arizona and its counties are unusual in two ways: (1) Multiple base studies are conducted for each region using different datasets. This repetitive analysis was done because of the significant, but varying, limitations of each dataset. (2) Rather than being based on the traditional sectoral share approach, employment per capita figures are used.