Business Environment Profiles

Every industry is influenced by external drivers such as consumer behavior, commodity prices and financial markets. Each Business Environment Profile focuses on one key driver, providing insight into its historical and forecast performance and the industries it affects, helping you uncover potential threats and opportunities.

Business Environment Profiles are located in the Products tab at the top of the platform under Supplementary Products.

You can also search for specific drivers in the homepage or navigation menu search bars.

Understand the external trends shaping industry performance

See how macroeconomic drivers—like interest rates, fuel costs or demographic shifts—influence changes in industry performance.

Model future outcomes with historical and forecast data

Access up to 20 years of historical data and five-year forecasts to support your planning, scenario analysis and risk assessment.

Connect external drivers to industries

Quickly identify which industries are impacted by specific external factors to guide strategic decisions.

Evaluate cost drivers and validate assumptions

Use relevant external data to validate contract prices and assess margin pressures or cost advantages tied to inputs like labor, steel or energy.

Support decisions with credible, third-party data

Back up recommendations, budgets or investment decisions with objective macroeconomic insights that align with IBISWorld’s cost benchmarks.

The Performance Snapshot gives a visual overview of the external driver's historical and forecast values, including compound annual growth rates (CAGR) and a long-term trend chart. This section helps you quickly grasp how the driver has changed over time and where it's headed.

You can also find the data behind the graph in a table at the bottom of the section.

The Current Performance section includes a written analysis of the driver’s performance over the past five years and its evolving influence on different industries.

In the Outlook section, the analyst highlights the driver's expected trajectory over the next five years. It includes key trends, potential disruptors and contextual factors that may influence future performance.

This section links to Industry Reports that are affected by changes to the driver. It helps you quickly identify where the driver is likely to influence demand, costs or operational risks.

Most Business Environment Profiles include the Industries Affected section that links to relevant Industry Reports impacted by changes in the external driver.

In turn, Industry Reports that follow the Standard template, for countries that offer Business Environment Profiles, include links to relevant profiles in the External Drivers section of the External Environment chapter.

For example, the Music Publishing in the US Industry Report links to the Album Sales Business Environment Profile, and that profile’s Industries Affected section links back to the report.

Data for Business Environment Profiles is sourced from verifiable third-party data sources, such as the US Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), among many others. When government sources are unavailable, our analysts rely on data provided by industry associations to ensure data integrity.

We forecast performance in Business Environment Profiles using a combination of external and internal models. This approach ensures accurate, consistent projections across a wide range of economic drivers.

For many profiles, we rely on institutional forecasts from trusted third-party sources. We aggregate these external forecasts to create a consensus estimate for the driver. We often use this method when robust forecasts are already available from reputable institutions.

When external forecasts are unavailable or insufficient, we build internal models tailored to each data series and rigorously test them to ensure quality and relevance. When applicable, internal models achieve an average adjusted R-squared value of 91.0%, indicating a strong statistical fit.

We update driver data 1-4 times per year, depending on when the underlying data is updated by the relevant third parties.

For additional questions regarding Business Environment Profiles, please contact your Client Relationship Manager. If you don’t have an IBISWorld account, please contact us to learn more about our membership options.