Posted on 07/17/2017 1:09:25 PM PDT by 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.
Its pretty amazing how ridiculously large the US economy is, and the map above helps put Americas GDP of $18 trillion in 2015 into perspective by comparing the GDP of US states to other countrys entire national GDP. For example:
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
1. Americas 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! Thats 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. Americas second largest state economyTexasproduced $1.64 trillion of economic output in 2015, which would have ranked the Lone Star State as the worlds 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, Brazils workforce is larger by almost 80 million workers compared to the U.S.!
3. Even with all of its oil wealth, Saudi Arabias GDP in 2015 at $653 billion was below the GDP of U.S. states like Pennsylvania ($680 billion) and Illinois ($768 billion).
4. Americas third largest state economyNew York with a GDP in 2015 of $1.45 trillionproduced nearly the same amount of economic output last year as Canada ($1.55 trillion) and would have ranked as the worlds 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 Floridas workforce of 9.3 million is about 8 percent of Indonesias 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 worlds population. Three of Americas states (California, Texas and New York)as separate countrieswould have ranked in the worlds 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 worlds third largest economy and ahead of No. 3 Japan ($4.1 trillion) by almost $1.5 trillion.
And one of those statesCaliforniaproduced more than $2 trillion in economic output in 2015and 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 lets 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.
It's the hard hitting inestigstive journalism we've all come to know and love from their journalists.
Isn’t Socialism Grand! Oh wait......
I never would have thought of that in a million years, but by George they're right!
Oregon = Pakistan! now that is classic
At least Washington State = Belgium, childhood home of Dr. Evil, yeah baby!
But Cali is broke as is NY
Cheese eating surrender monkeys?
Connecticut is Greece-West.
They are one bankruptcy away from being solvent and all those unfunded pensions flitter away.
No, within a year California would be Venezuela, or Haiti.
From a financial standpoint that may be true. Morally? Not so much.....
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!
If they are similar to France they should just surrender. That is the only thing France was ever good at.
Taxpayers should not be paying a pension for anybody.
I will make one exception. The Military. Active Duty and it is your butt on the line.
...and it has the high taxes and hard left culture to match.
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.
Why do they have Texas as Canada, when at the link it shows Texas similar to Brazil?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.