Useful Stats: Per capita GDP by state (2008-2017)

Earlier this month, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) published its 2017 estimates on state-level real gross domestic product (GDP). Per-capita gross product is a useful metric because it can show a state’s relative performance against its peers and over time. SSTI has prepared a spreadsheet showing 10 years of real per capita gross product by state, as well as an interactive map showing changes over the 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year periods. As more data becomes available, a future Digest issue will cover this topic at the metropolitan level. 

At nearly $160,000 per person, real per capita gross product was highest, by far, in Washington D.C. in 2017. Coastal states like Massachusetts ($66,500 per person), New York ($65,220), Delaware ($63,955), and Connecticut ($62,633), as well as energy-intensive states like North Dakota ($64,911), Alaska ($63,610), and Wyoming ($61,091), ranked highly for real per capita gross product in 2017.

In the past year, real per capita gross product grew faster in Western and Midwestern states, but more slowly in rural plains states. West Virginia (3.3 percent increase), Wyoming (3.0 percent increase), and Washington (2.7 percent increase) saw the largest increases in real per capita gross product from 2016 to 2017. Only five states experienced a one-year decline in real per capita gross product, led by South Dakota (0.6 percent decrease), Montana (0.5 percent decrease), and Kansas (0.2 percent decrease). Connecticut and Louisiana both experienced declines in real per capita gross product of less than 0.2 percent.  

Every state except North Dakota (4.2 percent decline) and Alaska (8.8 percent decline) saw their per capita gross product increase over the five-year period from 2013 to 2017. The states with the largest increases in per capita gross product over this time were California (12.1 percent increase), Washington (9.5 percent increase), Iowa (8.8 percent increase), Georgia (8.0 percent increase), and Michigan (7.8 percent increase).

During the 10-year period from 2008 to 2017, 40 states recorded an increase in per capita gross product, led by North Dakota (34.2 percent increase), Nebraska (14.4 percent increase), and Iowa (12.6 percent increase). The significant difference between North Dakota’s five- and 10-year growths speaks to the state’s energy-related boom period during the earlier part of the decade. Of the 11 states experiencing declines in per capita gross product, Wyoming (11.7 percent decrease), Nevada (9.1 percent decrease), and Connecticut (8.9 percent decrease) had the greatest decreases.

SSTI has prepared a spreadsheet showing 10-years of real per capita gross product by state, downloadable below.