(Photo by Flickr user Images Money via Creative Commons license)
The United States had a $17.3 trillion economy in 2014 — that’s about $7 trillion ahead of China — which makes it the wealthiest nation in the world by far.
Where’s all that wealth coming from? HowMuch.net found that the states with the largest economies are California (13.3 percent), Texas (9.5 percent), and New York (8.1 percent). The states with the smallest economies are Vermont (0.2 percent), Maine, Rhode Island, North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska, all of which represent about 0.3 percent of the U.S. economy.
Fueled by mining and manufacturing, the size of Texas’ economy increased by almost $300 billion, more than any other state. The state’s economy grew from 8.8 percent of the total U.S. economy in 2011 to 9.5 percent in 2014.
California grew by just under $300 billion, but its share of the total U.S. economy rose by only 0.1 percent.
Most economic activity in the U.S. is concentrated in three regions: Far West (18.6 percent), Southeast (21.3 percent), and Mideast (18.2 percent). Howmuch.net found this unsurprising since these regions contain major U.S. States and cover the U.S. coastline, where most large cities are located.
The chart below shows how much each state contributes to the U.S. economy.
When factoring in the kinds of innovation that are the foundational drivers of the global economy, the durable precursors to growth, California contributes just about all of that wonderful seed corn to the U.S. economy, and just about all to the entire global economy.
California also produces the majority of hyperbole in the US, as your comment so ably proves. 🙂
Are you kidding me Ps? So MIT doesn’t contribute to innovation? How many Nobel prizes does that school have? Or how about the tech triangle in North Carolina? Or New Jersey with Du Pont chemical and Princeton? How much did fracking innovation change the world? Do you prefer $4 gas to the $10 they pay in Europe? Thank Texas for that. I haven’t even gotten to all of the critical ag innovations from the Midwest. Not saying California doesn’t contribute but get a grip.
“The United States had a $17.3 trillion economy in 2014 — that’s about $7 trillion ahead of China — which makes it the wealthiest nation in the world by far.”
That’s misleading nonsense. Because different countries have completely different price levels. It’s absurd to compare GDP figures just by comparing national GDP figures with the exchange rates between different currencies.
I just honestly want to say “CONGRATULATIONS” for the US and all of American People.
i dont understand all this, but some of the States producing smallest amt are the food producing states.
I live in the Midwest in one of the “food-producing states.” Most of these states have small populations, which might explain why they contribute less. For example, Iowa has about 3 million people. South Dakota only has about 500,000 people in the entire state–and it’s larger in land mass than several European counties. Kansas, only about 3 million. Many of the East and West Coasts have populations at least 5 to 6 times greater than the Midwest states.
Which states are heading towards bankruptcy and need huge bail outs, start with California.
Comparing economies of different nations is difficult. Two misleading factors are GDP adjusted for PPP and GDP per capita adjusted for PPP. GDP only reflects how much the value of products produced on your own territory is worth, not how much of it you get to keep. PPP or “purchasing price parity” adjusts the local buying power of money but does not reflect what things like oil cost on the world market. PPP of the US is by definition 1.0. China’s PPP is 3.5. GNI and GNI per capita unadjusted for PPP are ways to compare apples with apples instead of apples with oranges. GNI is GDP minus money flowing out of the country to foreign owners plus money flowing into the country from profits due to ownership of foreign investments. By this measure, China is a much smaller economy than it appears just looking at GDP. The numbers also don’t reflect the quality or value of what is produced. For example China has invested in vast overcapacity in manufacturing and in ghost cities that are of no value. They include these investment numbers in their GDP calculations. Also much of what is produced in China including capital construction is of poor quality. All of these facts are well documented. When these numbers are taken into account, the US is BY FAR the world’s leading economy with Japan second at about 1/2 the US.
Even adjusted for PPP, California alone would be the seventh largest economy in the world behind the US, China, Japan, Germany, France, and Britain. The next largest but smaller than California is Italy. The innovation that comes from California and the agricultural products are an enormous contribution to the US but it is hardly unique as there is much innovation and productivity all over the US. Much of the US’s GNI comes from China’s GDP. When an iphone or ipad are made in China, most of the profits go to Apple Computer in California. When an HP Computer is made in China, most of its profits go to California. China skims a little off the top. Don’t be fooled, China is not nearly as impressive as it looks. Without American innovation, construction and management of manufacturing plants in China, and practically duty free export of products back to the US and elsewhere, China would go broke immediately. China’s fate is in America’s hands. Even so, China’s economy may collapse through horrible mismanagement by the Communist Party no matter even if the FED never raises interest rates.
It is because we in the SE do not make as much money as you biggy Northerners do… thankyouverymuch. Take a job down here and see.
USA is world’s best country……every side.
everybody want to live America dream
Thank Jerry Brown for taking California from the 7th to the 6th largest economy in the world.
California bankruptcy? Keep telling yourself that. That narrative is a decade expired. Bail out? No. CA’s tax contributions (13.3%) are used to keep other states in Trump country afloat that aren’t exactly pulling their weight.
JTrevino- How about checking your pride at the door. Main reason CA, TX, & NY all lead in % is because they are the largest states (more people, more business). You could put 105 Rhode Islands inside California & they would outproduce California. 😉 But thank you…….
$351.5 billion a yr.—–$1.103 trillion per yr—–465.5 trillion a year this is how much the middle east in america makes alone these are three states (Mass.– New York— New Jersey)