Aerospace Scale Factor

Name: Aerospace Economics State Index
Creator: ENKARI LLC
License: https://thalrik.com/licensing

Raw absolute size — when scale is what matters.

What it measures

The absolute aerospace and defense economic footprint of a jurisdiction — total contract dollars, total employment, total establishment count — expressed on the same 0–100 scale as the other indices.

Inputs

Federal contract awards feed: All-time prime + sub obligations in the state.
BLS QCEW: Employment totals in aerospace-adjacent NAICS.
Federal entity registry: Active defense establishment counts.

Output shape

0–100 score per jurisdiction. Deliberately favors large states — use ASF alongside AEPI (which normalizes for scale) to see both sides of the story.

Why it is shaped this way

AEPI rewards states that punch above their weight. ASF rewards states where the absolute mass is irreplaceable. Most buyers want both numbers in the same view.

Sources cited

Sources coverage

What we deliberately do not publish

The weights, coefficient tables, normalization cutoffs, and the specific transformation logic that turns the inputs above into a 0–100 score are proprietary to ENKARI LLC. The authenticated product exposes per-state component breakdowns, the source rows backing each component, and the full backtested trend series.

AEPI — Aerospace Economics & Procurement Index
Federal contract dollars flowing into the jurisdiction.
Composite — THALRIK State Composite Score
The headline 0–100 score that sorts all 53 jurisdictions.

See state-specific scores (free account)Browse all index methodology notes