Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased in 43 states and the District of Columbia in the first quarter of 2017, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Only 15 states saw an acceleration in its annualized rate of growth from the last quarter of 2016 to the first quarter of 2017 while 35 states and the District of Columbia recorded a slowdown in growth over the same period, including seven states moving from growth in the fourth quarter of 2016 to a decline in the first quarter of 2017. As a result, nationwide, growth in real GDP slowed over the first quarter of 2017.

In the first quarter of 2017, the 10 largest state economies were:

• California
• Texas
• New York
• Florida
• Illinois
• Pennsylvania
• Ohio
• New Jersey
• Georgia
• North Carolina

Combined, these economies accounted for 56.3% of nationwide GDP.

However, the size of the largest state economies in part reflects the size of their population. Per capita GDP captures the average value of production per person. Using population figures for 2016, the latest available data, the 10 largest state economies per capita GDP for the first quarter of 2017 were:

• District of Columbia
• Massachusetts
• Connecticut
• New York
• Delaware
• Alaska
• North Dakota
• California
• Wyoming
• Washington

In 2016, the population in the District of Columbia was 681,170. In contrast, the average population across the 50 remaining states was 6.5 million, 9.5 times larger than the population of the District of Columbia. Total GDP in the District of Columbia in the first quarter of 2017 was approximately $110 billion while the average value of production across the remaining 50 states was about $328 billion, which is 3 times greater than the GDP of the District of Columbia.

Across all the states and the District of Columbia, real GDP growth in the first quarter of 2017, ranged from an increase of 3.9 percent in Texas to a decline of 4.0 percent in Nebraska.

The top 10 fastest growing states are shown in the figure above. In the table below, the strongest and weakest contributors to overall growth in the top 10 fastest growing economies over the first quarter of 2017 are listed. Contributions to GDP encompass both its size and the rate of growth across each industry in the states’ economy. As described in the table below, manufacturing, mining, and real estate and rental and leasing were the strongest contributors to growth in 9 of the 10 fastest growing states. Meanwhile, retail trade and agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting were the weakest contributors in 8 of the top 10 fastest growing states.

These tables provide information about the economy for each individual state.

Tags: economics, home building, housing, state and local markets, state GDP