Thread: California still leads U.S. in state GDP

California still leads U.S. in state GDP

June 8th, 2011, 1:00 am
by Mary Ann Milbourn

California has its problems, but it is still an economic powerhouse that led the nation last year in state gross domestic product — by far, reported the Bureau of Economic Analysis Tuesday.

The Golden State accounted for 13.1% of all the goods and services produced in the country last year, down from 13.2% in 2009 and 13.4% in 2007 and 2008.

Texas was a distant second with 8.3% of the U.S. GDP in 2010, up from 8.2% in 2009. (Click on map to enlarge.)

In terms of year-over-year percentage change in GDP, however, California was in the middle of the pack. The state’s GDP grew 1.8% in 2010 to rank 34th among the 50 states. Texas grew 2.8% to place 17th on the list.

The winner in year-over-year percentage growth was North Dakota, whose hot mining sector pushed its state GDP up 7.1% last year.

New York was the second biggest grower at 5.1% and Illinois was third at 4.6%.

In California, durable goods manufacturing — equipment, machinery, aircraft etc. — was the biggest contributor to the change in the state’s GDP. Non-durable goods manufacturing — food, apparel, etc. — was the biggest detractor.

Top contributors to California’s change in GDP

Sector
% of change

Durable goods manufacturing
0.77%

Information
0.43%

Professional and business services
0.35%

Retail trade
0.30%

Wholesale trade
0.24%

State GDP is calculated as the sum of what consumers, businesses and government spend on final goods and services, plus investment and net foreign trade.

Read the full BEA report HERE.
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regiona ... sp0611.pdf

http://economy.ocregister.com/2011/06/0 ... gdp/57715/

California has its problems, but it is still an economic powerhouse that led the nation last year in state gross domestic product — by far, reported the Bureau of Economic Analysis Tuesday.

So? The point that the Tea Party folks keep trying to get across is that GDP is NOT the problem. Spending is. And that is the problem with California. Any fifth grader can figure this out. If you earn a million dollars a year, WOW"! But if you also spend 1.5 million dollars a year, you are going to go broke.