Which Year Is It Anyway? Data Year, Model Year, and Dollar Year

INTRODUCTION

While we might be most used to using calendar year, a fiscal year, or even the year of the snake, we at IMPLAN follow our own years. This article outlines the basics to understand Data Year, Model Year, and Dollar Year.

DATA YEAR

The Data Year in IMPLAN is the year of the dataset that you are utilizing. The current Industry Set for the U.S. contains the 528 Industries and their respective Commodities. This U.S. Industry Set will be used at IMPLAN through 2027. However, our Data Team has created time series data using this scheme for the years 2001-2024.

We recommend using the Data Year that matches the year of the figures you bring to IMPLAN. If you are modeling something in the past, you might need to change your default settings in order to access the appropriate Data Year. If Data Year is selected as your default, you can do this by clicking on the year from the map and choosing what you would like to use. If Model Year is selected as your default, you can change this to Data Year in Preferences (keep reading).

The Data Year will also show on the impacts page and can be changed here as well. Simply click in the Data Year box to choose another year.

MODEL YEAR

The Model Year is IMPLAN's dataset designation that specifies the year of intended use for that dataset, rather than the year of data collection. This is a feature released in version 25.6. Users now have the ability to toggle between the traditional Data Year and the Model Year. When the most recent Model Year is selected, IMPLAN will use the most recent Data Year for the analysis, but this can be changed as well by clicking on the Model Year from the Regions screen.

To switch between the default setting for Data Year and Model Year, click on your profile in the upper right of IMPLAN. Then toggle the Display as Model Year button and click Save. If you want to model something using an older Data Year, you will need to set your preference to not display as Model Year.

DOLLAR YEAR

Dollar Year is the year represented by the values in your Event. Changing the Dollar Year tells IMPLAN to inflate or deflate the entered values. You will find Dollar Year on your Impacts and Results pages. On the Impacts screen, Dollar Year should be the year of the data you are inputting. You can change it by clicking in the box for Dollar Year in your Group.

On the Results screen, Dollar Year should be the year in which dollars you want to report your results. You can also change it using the filter for Dollar Year.

LATEST DATA RELEASES

This table shows the most recent Industry Scheme and the associated years of the data. Click any of the links to dig in further.

SYSTEM DEFAULTS

Users can change their preferences by clicking on the profile in the upper right of IMPLAN. Default settings are in place, but if you want to always use Level 5 - Detail for your Occupation Aggregation Level, get down with your bad self and change that setting right here.

Alternatively, a user can select the System Default. Selecting the System Default for each setting will allow IMPLAN to automatically set the options as new data sets become available. 

Preferences is also where you can switch to an older Industry Scheme or to a Canadian or International scheme.

Users can also use a different Industry Scheme (U.S., Canada, or International). From the Dashboard, click the Plus Icon under Recent Projects to start a new Project. Alternatively, a user can apply a different Industry Scheme by creating a New Project from the Dashboard or Projects tile. Or click on the folder icon on the left navigation bar and click Create New Project.

USING DIFFERENT DOLLAR YEARS

For an example of when Dollar Year on the Impacts screen will not be the year in which the event occurred, suppose an analyst was borrowing a visitor expenditure pattern from a survey that was done in 2019. Let’s say they want to use this data to estimate visitor spending in 2025. In this case, while the year of the event (that is, the year of the visits) is 2025, those dollars still represent 2019 dollars and must be characterized as such in order to generate correct results. By correctly telling IMPLAN that those values are 2019 values (by setting Dollar Year to 2019 on the Impacts screen), IMPLAN will know to inflate those values to the Data Year to ensure the correct values are applied to the multipliers.

If the analyst was setting up an event with an employment value instead of a dollar value (which is only recommended when there is no dollar value to set-up of the Event), the Dollar Year on the Impacts screen should be set to the year in which that employment took place or is expected to take place.

Defining Dollar Year in the Impacts screen correctly is essential to getting accurate Results. On the other hand, how Dollar Year is defined in the Results screen is totally up to the user and how they want to report the Results. If we want to report the effect of our 2025 visitors in 2025 dollars, we simply need to ensure the Dollar Year in the Results screen is filtered to 2025. 

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Written August 30, 2023

Updated May 14, 2026