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Useful Stats: Five-year Change in GDP by U.S. Metro Area
According to the first-ever release of gross domestic product (GDP) estimates by metro area, 327 of the nation's 363 metro areas enjoyed growth in real GDP in 2005. Only 133 of the areas accelerated faster than inflation, however. The one-year percent change in 2005 GDP for metro areas ranged from 19.4 percent in Palm Coast, Fla., to -5.4 percent in New Orleans. Real GDP declined in 36 metro areas.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) made the experimental but potentially valuable statistics available to the public to receive broad evaluation and comment by users. All told, metropolitan areas of the country account for 90 percent of the nation's total GDP. That figure is heavily skewed toward the largest areas, however -- the top 5 metro areas account for 23 percent of the U.S. total, while the smallest 75 areas make up less than 2 percent of U.S. GDP. At $1.1 trillion, the New York metro area would be the second state behind California's $1.6 trillion figure and the 10th largest country. The 2005 total GDP for the U.S. is $12.4 trillion.
The Sept. 26 BEA press release includes a table presenting annual GDP estimates in chained 2001 dollars for all 363 metro areas for 2001-2005. In addition, it provides annual percent changes and rank for 2004-2005 percent change. The data is also downloadable from the BEA website.
To complement the BEA table, SSTI has prepared a table presenting the same data with ranking for the percent change for the full five-year period. Palm Coast tops the list with a commanding 163.81 percent change, far outdistancing the 56.91 percent change experienced by second place Corvalis, Ore. The balance of the top 10 were:
- Port St. Lucie, Fla.
- Lake Charles, La.
- Fort Walton-Beach-Crestview-Destin, Fla.
- St. George, Utah
- Madera, Calif.
- Bend, Ore.
- Las Cruces, N.M.
- Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Ark.-Mo.
SSTI's table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/092607t.htm
The BEA press release is available at: http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/gdp_metro/gdp_metro_newsrelease.htm