Policymakers should be interested in which sectors are present in their region to ensure TBED investments and workforce priorities can have the greatest impact. Exploring gross domestic product (GDP) at the county level offers a detailed look at the economic output of sectors and how they shape local economies. At the county level, data for smaller or more rural counties may reveal nuances invisible when looking broadly at entire MSAs or states, particularly for those areas with lower populations.
This edition of Useful Stats uses newly released and updated Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data to visually show the top sectors across all U.S. counties, and map county-level real (inflation-adjusted) GDP broken down by private sector. All data used is adjusted for inflation using thousands of chained 2017 dollars.
Top sectors by private sector GDP
In 2024, the finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing sector was the top by contribution to total GDP in approximately a third of all U.S. counties (943) with available data, more than any other sector. Manufacturing was the second most common top sector, accounting for the primary source of GDP in 896 counties. These two sectors were the primary sector for GDP contribution in approximately 59% of counties; of those with a different primary sector, the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting sector and mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector were the next contributors.
Compared to 2005, however, there is a vast difference; the finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing sector was the primary sector by GDP contribution in just under half of all U.S. counties (1,514), followed by manufacturing (911). Together, approximately 78% of all counties had one of the aforementioned sectors as their primary by GDP contribution in 2005.
Educational services, health care, and social assistance was the sector with the largest net change; from 2005 to 2024, it became the top sector by contribution to GDP in an additional 154 counties. Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting (110) and professional and business services (92) followed with the next largest net increases. Finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing as well as manufacturing were the only sectors to have a net decrease (-571 and –15, respectively).
Figure 1 below includes a detailed map of the dominant sectors by GDP contribution across all U.S. counties in 2024 and 2025 for which data are available. The controls under the title of the figure can be used to toggle between the largest and second-largest contributors to private sector GDP within each U.S. county.
Visualizing the largest sectors in each county’s geographic distribution allows for regional trends to be spotted immediately. For example, in 2024, counties from along the Great Lakes region down to the south, encompassing many counties in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, among others, show a higher density of manufacturing-intensive counties than other parts of the nation.
Clicking the arrow on the top right of Figure 1 below switches the year to 2005, two decades earlier. In 2005, manufacturing was less prominent as the dominant sector for many of these same counties, and the finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing sector was a larger contributor to many county GDPs.
For these trends and more, refer to Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Top sectors by GDP for each county, 2024 and 2005
To more easily see the sectoral breakdown of a given county’s GDP, SSTI has also prepared a donut chart for each county within Figure 2. Figure 2 below includes two charts for each county, one for 2005 and one for 2024. This not only allows for a visual representation of each county’s sectoral breakdown, but also for comparing how compositions may have changed over the past two decades.
Hovering over or clicking any slice will reveal both the name and real GDP of the sector for that county and year.
To display data for a specific county, use the dropdown menu beneath the Figure’s title and either scroll or type out a county name, then click to select.
Figure 2: Real gross domestic product, by county and sector, 2005 and 2024
Real GDP by county, total and private sector breakdown
Taking a step back to establish a baseline for real GDP by county, Figure 3 below shows a map of real GDP for each U.S. county with available data for the 10-year period between 2015 and 2024. The mapped data is visualized in quintiles, and each year operates on an independent scale to best allow comparisons across counties within a given year rather than the same county over multiple years. To see a county’s real GDP, hover over the geography or search for its name using the search function beneath the color scale.
Figure 3: Real gross domestic product, by county, 2015-2024
Breaking the data above down by sector and extending the timeframe to the 20-year period of 2005 and 2024, Figure 4 below includes a dropdown allowing one private sector to be shown at a time, for both 2024 and 2005.
Figure 4: Real gross domestic product, by county and sector, 2024 and 2005
In addition to the above private sectors, BEA also provides some more detailed data on subgroups; one of these is a breakdown of the manufacturing sector into two component parts: durable goods manufacturing and nondurable goods manufacturing.
Durable goods manufacturing primarily consists of tangible products that can be stored or inventoried and are used repeatedly or continuously over an extended period, while nondurable goods manufacturing are primarily tangible products that can be stored or inventoried and are usable over a relatively short period. Neither of these manufacturing sub-groups is defined within the SIC or NAICS coding structure.
Figure 5 below includes a map that shows the percentage of each county’s manufacturing sector GDP that is durable, as well as the inverse. It is toggleable via the control beneath the title.
Figure 5: Percentage of county manufacturing sector GDP that is durable or nondurable, 2024
This page was prepared by SSTI using Federal funds under award ED22HDQ3070129 from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Development Administration or the U.S. Department of Commerce.