An Iowa State project is giving students and all Iowans access to economic and demographic information over the Internet.

The Iowa PROfiles page on the World Wide Web received an award from Point Communications Nov. 2 for being in the top 5 percent of all Web sites.

“We’re the only Web site in Iowa to receive the award,” said Mark Imerman project leader.

Although the primary audience for the Iowa PROfiles is Iowa’s communities and leaders, many students will also find useful data, Imerman said.

The site has information useful for community and regional planning, political science, economic and agriculture majors as well as others, Imerman said.

PROfiles also has population, trade, income, tourism and caucus information.

The project began last spring. “We wanted to make local data on communities accessible and useful to the general public,” Imerman said. “We’re going to have it available to do statistical analysis in the future.”

Several ISU students have been working on the project and its expansion.

The address for the Iowa PROfiles is http://www.profiles.iastate.edu.