Not everyone thrills to see growth in gross domestic product and fluctuations in fictitious business statement filings. But for those who do, Thursday was a red-letter day in Kern County.

County government unveiled an online economic performance dashboard it said would be updated monthly to present otherwise scattered data for the benefit of investors, researchers and the local community interested in how the county's economy is progressing.

Information is divided into pages dedicated to several categories, with visual representation and interactivity, in some cases, to track a variety of business activities, demographic measures and employment statistics. Insights to be gained are expected to become richer as monthly updates clarify trends over time.

Stanford University's research and development platform Stanford Impact Labs funded the project through its Evidence for Policy fellowship, whose Kern County coach predicted the data will be used to inform efforts that help local businesses.

“The county’s data-forward approach to tracking progress and measuring success will allow for evidence-based decision making about the best programs and policies to help businesses launch, grow and thrive throughout Kern County,” Hana Passen, who also works as senior strategy adviser at Stanford Impact Labs, said in a county news release Thursday.

It's the first time the county has pulled together and made public such a wealth of economic performance indicators. There are six “scorecards:" Snapshot, Demographics, Businesses, Employment, Investments and Permit Activity. The release said each contains the latest available data from county, state and federal government.

Here are a few data points that stood out on the dashboard as it appeared Thursday:

• The number of new fictitious business name statements filed in Kern in June was 28% lower than in May;

• Almost two-thirds of businesses in the county have no more than four employees;

• Health care and social services accounts for more businesses than any other sector in the county, but farming employs the most workers, after government;

• Kern's seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate in June, 8.9%, was 3.6 percentage points greater than that of the state as a whole;

• The county's gross domestic product was up 8.4% year over year in 2022 at $44.3 billion;

• The cost of living in Kern was just 10.9% greater than the U.S. average, while California overall was 41.5% pricier;

• The manufacturing industry accounts for the most project leads at Kern Economic Development Corp., with 55% in 2023-24, ahead of No. 2 energy at 15%; next came distribution activity's 10%.