In 1985, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Great Lakes Commission conceived and produced a statistical compendium of the Great Lakes region entitled "The Great Lakes Economy: A Resource and Industry Profile of the Great Lakes States". The present document represents a culmination of several years' research which updates and eclipses its predecessor in several important ways. The volume provides analysts of the region the opportunity to interpret the facts surrounding the region's endowments, performance, and changes. In doing so, several authors have chosen to look beyond the states themselves to the closely-linked Canadian portion of the Great Lakes region. Resource and industry trends and performance are still addressed in full but the linkages among the region's resources, people, and industries are also brought to the fore.