Economic Output: If Each State in the USA Were Countries, California Would be France

Newsweek ^ | 6/11/16 | BY MARK J. PERRY

[SeekAndFind]

(Note: The map above and post and table below have been slightly updated to reflect new, more complete, and revised state GDP data for 2015 that were released today by the BEA. The previous post was based on preliminary data through the third quarter of last year.)

The map above (click to enlarge) was created (with assistance from AEI’s graphic design director Olivier Ballou) by matching the economic output (GDP) in each US state (and the District of Columbia) in 2015 to foreign countries with comparable nominal GDP last year, using data from the BEA for GDP by US state and data for GDP by country from the International Monetary Fund. For each US state (and the District of Columbia), I identified the country closest in economic size in 2015 (measured by nominal GDP), and for each state there was a country with a pretty close match – those countries are displayed in the map above and in the table below. Obviously, in some cases the closest match was a country that produced slightly more, or slightly less, economic output in 2015 than a given US state.

It’s pretty amazing how ridiculously large the US economy is, and the map above helps put America’s GDP of $18 trillion in 2015 into perspective by comparing the GDP of US states to other country’s entire national GDP. For example:

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1. America’s largest state economy is California, which produced $2.44 trillion of economic output in 2015, just slightly above the GDP of France during the same period of $2.42 trillion.

Consider this: California has a workforce of about 19 million compared to an employment level in France of slightly more than 25 million workers. Amazingly, it required 56 percent (and 9 million) more workers in France to produce the same economic output last year as California! That’s a testament to the superior, world-class productivity of the American worker.

Further, California as a separate country would have been the sixth largest economy in the world last year, ahead of France ($2.42 trillion) and India ($2.09 trillion) and not too far behind No. 5 U.K. at $2.85 trillion.

2. America’s second largest state economy—Texas—produced $1.64 trillion of economic output in 2015, which would have ranked the Lone Star State as the world’s 10th largest economy last year, behind No. 9 Brazil with $1.77 trillion of economic output.

Although Brazil out-produced Texas last year by almost 8 percent, the workforce of Brazil is around 91 million employees compared to payroll employment in Texas of only about 12 million. So to produce just slightly more economic output last year, Brazil’s workforce is larger by almost 80 million workers compared to the U.S.!

3. Even with all of its oil wealth, Saudi Arabia’s GDP in 2015 at $653 billion was below the GDP of U.S. states like Pennsylvania ($680 billion) and Illinois ($768 billion).

4. America’s third largest state economy—New York with a GDP in 2015 of $1.45 trillion—produced nearly the same amount of economic output last year as Canada ($1.55 trillion) and would have ranked as the world’s 11th largest economy last year as a separate country, ahead of both South Korea ($1.38 trillion) and Russia ($1.32 trillion).

Amazingly, even though Canada produced about 7 percent more economic output last year than the state of New York, there are almost twice as many Canadian workers (about 18 million) as the number of workers employed in New York (9.2 million). Another example of the world-class productivity of the American workforce.

5. Other comparisons: Florida ($888 billion) produced about the same amount of GDP in 2015 as Indonesia ($858 billion), even though Florida’s workforce of 9.3 million is about 8 percent of Indonesia’s workforce of 115 million employees. GDP in Illinois last year of $768 billion was just slightly higher than economic output in the Netherlands ($738 billion), even though employment in Illinois (6.2 million workers) is about 25 percent below the employment level in the Netherlands (8.34 million workers).

Overall, the U.S. produced 24.5 percent of world GDP in 2015, with only about 4.5 percent of the world’s population. Three of America’s states (California, Texas and New York)—as separate countries—would have ranked in the world’s top 11 largest economies last year.

Together, those three US states produced $5.5 trillion in economic output last year, and as a separate country would have ranked as the world’s third largest economy and ahead of No. 3 Japan ($4.1 trillion) by almost $1.5 trillion.

And one of those states—California—produced more than $2 trillion in economic output in 2015—and the other two (Texas and New York) produced more than $1.6 trillion and $1.4 trillion of GDP in 2015 respectively.

Adjusted for the size of the workforce, there might not be any country in the world that produces as much output per worker as the US, thanks to the world-class productivity of the American workforce.

The map above and the statistics summarized here help remind us of the enormity of the economic powerhouse we live and work in. So let’s not lose sight of how ridiculously large and powerful the US economy is, and how much wealth, output and prosperity is being created every day in the largest economic engine ever in human history.

[SeekAndFind]

That map was 2015.

Here's the latest news....

California the world’s fifth largest economy? Look out, Britain

EXCERPT:

California’s economy ranked sixth in the world in 2016, according to rankings released by Palo Alto economist Stephen Levy on Friday. That’s the same as the year before, when California overtook France and Brazil.. But the state’s economy isn’t stagnating; California’s economy is growing so quickly that Levy thinks the state will overtake the United Kingdom this year for No. 5.

[johniegrad]

Newsweek figures out that more highly populated states have greater economic output.

It's the hard hitting inestigstive journalism we've all come to know and love from their journalists.

[eyedigress]

Isn’t Socialism Grand! Oh wait......

[Ken H]

Newsweek figures out that more highly populated states have greater economic output.

I never would have thought of that in a million years, but by George they're right!

[shotgun]

Oregon = Pakistan! now that is classic

At least Washington State = Belgium, childhood home of Dr. Evil, yeah baby!

[t4texas]

But Cali is broke as is NY

[rktman]

Cheese eating surrender monkeys?

[Daffynition]

Connecticut is Greece-West.

[eyedigress]

They are one bankruptcy away from being solvent and all those unfunded pensions flitter away.

[WP Lonestar]

No, within a year California would be Venezuela, or Haiti.

[t4texas]

From a financial standpoint that may be true. Morally? Not so much.....

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Oregon = Pakistan! now that is classic

Put in perspective. Oregon has 4 million people. Pakistan is one of the most populous countries in the world — 189 Million people.

Oregon is over 40 times more productive than Pakistan!

[DrDude]

If they are similar to France they should just surrender. That is the only thing France was ever good at.

[eyedigress]

Taxpayers should not be paying a pension for anybody.

[dragnet2]

[eyedigress]

I will make one exception. The Military. Active Duty and it is your butt on the line.

[captain_dave]

...and it has the high taxes and hard left culture to match.

[shotgun]

Forgive me but my view of Oregon is slightly tainted growing up across the river in Vancouver and having “another Oregon first crap” shoved down our throats every night on the news. That being said, that’s certainly a positive way to look at it, however Pakistan is also $#!+hole, with the majority of their population wanting to live in primitive times like Mohammed.

I can see that in Oregon with all of aging hippies and millennial lib kids fighting against capitalism.

In the words of the late Governor Tom McCall, Welcome to Oregon, but please don’t stay.

[dragnet2]

Why do they have Texas as Canada, when at the link it shows Texas similar to Brazil?