Useful Stats: Five-year Change in GDP by U.S. Metro Area

According to figures released last week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), 85 percent of the nation's 363 metro areas experienced growth in real GDP from 2005 to 2006. For the U.S. metro areas as a whole, the aggregate GDP in current dollars was $11.79 trillion in 2006 - about 90 percent of the U.S. GDP.

Trends in GDP growth can be more informative than one-year changes that might be caused by sudden changes in a local economy (e.g., Hurricane Katrina). SSTI has prepared a table displaying changes in metro area GDP estimates for the five-year period 2002 to 2006. To facilitate comparison across metro areas, the data has been presented in chained 2001 dollars.

The GDP in 23 metro areas decreased over the five years, 2002 to 2006, some like New Orleans and Gulfport-Biloxi for reasons related to the natural disaster. The decline in other metro areas may be more systemic as the local economies continue to restructure away from declining industrial sectors.

Alternatively, 167 of the metro areas experienced gains at a rate larger than the U.S. metro total - calculated to be 12.8 percent.

The metro area centered around St. George, Utah experienced the largest increase at 48.7 percent. Rounding out the top ten metro areas were:

• Port St. Lucie, FL
• Corvallis, OR.
• Las Vegas-Paradise, NV
• Palm Coast, FL
• Ocala, FL
• Prescott, AZ
• Coeur d'Alene, ID
• Naples-Marco Island, FL
• Longview, TX

It should be noted the recent data may include revisions from the values released last year from the BEA. Depending on the definitions of each metro area by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the specific geographical boundary of MSAs may also have changed over time.

SSTI's table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/100108t.htm

The BEA press release is available at: http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/gdp_metro/gdp_metro_newsrelease.htm