California Vs. The Rest of the US
How many of the smallest U.S. state economies together equal California’s alone?
June 11, 2017
1. The 25 smallest U.S. state economies (not counting D.C.) add up to $2.68 trillion as of 2016 – which is just a bit larger than California’s $2.66 trillion.
2. These bottom 25 state economies (out of 50 overall) range on the small end from Vermont ($31 billion) to South Carolina ($213 billion).
3. The best-known private-sector components of California’s economy are the software and recorded entertainment sectors in places like Silicon Valley and Hollywood, respectively.
4. Together, as the “Information” industry, they account for 8% of California’s economy.
5. Manufacturing, including some of the hardware side of the tech industry and more, is 11%. Government is 12%. Real estate is 17%.
6. California’s agricultural sector also remains a vital factor in the U.S. economy, but generates only about 1% of the state’s economy today.
7. The size of the Bay Area economy, which primarily encompasses San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Silicon Valley, amounts to about $667 billion.
8. At that level, the multi-metro area economy is about as large as the GDP of Switzerland ($665 billion).
9. With Apple, Google and Facebook, the Bay area also has the headquarters of the 1st, 2nd and 8th most valuable publicly-traded companies in the world.
10. These three firms currently have a total market capitalization of $1.66 trillion.
Sources: The Globalist Research Center, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Census Bureau, World Bank
