Bioeconomic models have been developed and applied to a range of fisheries around the world. However, an even greater number of fisheries are relatively data poor, and development of traditional bioeconomic models is not feasible. For small-scale fisheries, the cost of data collection and model development may exceed the additional value these models may generate. Fisheries biologists have grappled with similar issues and have developed a range of data-poor methods for estimating reference points related to fishing mortality based on life history characteristics and other indicators. In other cases, catch and effort data may be sufficient to estimate sustainable biomass levels. However, model-derived economic target reference points require robust biological models as well as appropriate economic information, both of which are often unavailable. In this paper, we extend the data-poor work to move from biological to economic target reference points for single-species fisheries. We show that the relationship between economic (maximum economic yield) and biological (maximum sustainable yield) reference points depends primarily on the cost : revenue ratio, and that, where unavailable, these can be inferred from fisheries characteristics. We show that good estimates of biomass- and effort-based economic target reference points can be achieved with limited data.