Per Capita GDP by EU and US State, Fourth Quarter 2018

The chart above shows the per capita annualized nominal gross domestic product (GDP) in each EU and US state as of the fourth quarter of 2018 in dollars, the change from the previous quarter, and the GDP one year prior.  Luxembourg is in a class all by itself.

Findings

• The difference between the state with the largest per capita GDP, Luxembourg, and the state with the smallest, Bulgaria, is $129,829.74 (down from $131,545.55 last quarter and up from $127,583.80 last year).  Luxembourg and Bulgaria had the largest and smallest per capita GDP respectively both last quarter and last year.
• Luxembourg has 16.26 times the per capita GDP that Bulgaria does.  The ratio of largest per capita GDP to smallest per capita GDP was up from 16.18 last quarter and down from 16.37 last year.
• The median per capita GDP in the 28 EU states is $29,049 (down from $29,259 last quarter and down from $29,053 last year) and the mean $36,863 (down from $48,893 the previous quarter and down from $48,493 last year).
• The median per capita GDP in the 50 US states is $61,767 (up from $61,195 last quarter and up from $58,881 last year) and the mean $63,032 (up from $62,450 the previous quarter and up from $60,005 last year).
• The median per capita GDP in the 78 EU and US states is $55,960 (up from $55,269 last quarter and up from $53,161 last year) and the mean $53,638 (up from $53,355 the previous quarter and up from $51,616 last year).
• Fifty-seven states (seven EU, 50 US) saw their per capita GDP rise in current dollars from the previous quarter while 21 saw their per capita GDP drop (all from the EU).
• Sixty-eight states (18 EU, 50 US) saw their per capita GDP rise in current dollars from last year while ten saw it drop (all from the EU).
• All EU drops in per capita GDP, save for Bulgaria and Greece's quarterly drop and Sweden year-over-year drop, are attributed to currency rate fluctuations.

Caveats

• GDP data is from the fourth quarter of 2018.
• US census data is from 2010, EU census data is from 2011.
• The data is seasonally adjusted in current dollars.
• Euros are converted to dollars at an average exchange rate of 1.14 for the fourth quarter of 2018, 1.16 for the third quarter of 2018, and 1.18 for the fourth quarter of 2017 according to historic rates listed at the Federal Reserve (see source link below).
• US data comes in an annualized format which the EU does not, thus EU data is annualized by multiplying the quarterly figure by four.
• US growth rates may differ from those provided by the Bureau of Economic Analysis as the BEA's growth rates are based on chained dollars in conjunction with the chain index or the quality index for real GDP.  The growth rates listed here are based on nominal GDP.
• All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.

Details

In absolute terms, Luxembourg saw the largest decrease over the previous quarter with a drop of $1,872.24.  Washington had the largest growth with a gain of $1,066.87.  Year over year, Sweden had the largest decrease with a drop of $2,299.06 while Washington had the greatest increase with a gain of $6,199.99.

In relative terms, Greece had the largest decrease over the previous quarter with a 1.89% drop in per capita GDP while Texas had the greatest increase with a 1.41% rise in per capita GDP.  Year over year, Sweden had the largest contraction with a 3.88% drop in per capita GDP while Washington had the largest growth with a 7.79% rise in per capita GDP.

The number of states with a per capita GDP of over $80,000 increased from five last year to eight this past quarter.  Conversely, the number of states with a per capita GDP of less than $50,000 went from 32 last year to 28 this past quarter.

Michigan surpassed two states (Oklahoma and the Netherlands) going from 44th highest per capita GDP to 42nd highest in this past quarter.  Ten other states surpassed one state each: Massachusetts (from 3rd to 2nd), Washington (5th to 4th), Texas (14th to 13th), Nevada (27th to 26th), Georgia (28th to 27th), Vermont (42nd to 41st), Missouri (45th to 44th), South Carolina (48th to 47th), Idaho (50th to 49th), and Kentucky (54th to 53rd).  The Netherlands was surpassed by four states (Vermont, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Missouri) and went from 41st highest per capita GDP to 45th highest.  Denmark was surpassed by two (Nevada and Georgia) to go from 26th to 28th.  Six states were bested by one state each: New York (2nd to 3rd), Delaware (4th to 5th), New Jersey (13th to 14th), Finland (47th to 48th), Montana (49th to 50th), and Germany (53rd to 54th).  Year over year, New Mexico bested four states and went from 55th highest per capita GDP to 51st.  Nevada (29th to 26th), Ohio (35th to 32nd), Arizona (43rd to 40th), Oklahoma (46th to 43rd), and Idaho (52nd to 49th) each bested three states, while Washington (6th to 4th), Texas (15th to 13th), Utah (23rd to 21st), Tennessee (36th to 34th), Michigan (44th to 42nd), and West Virginia (60th to 58th) each bested two.  Twenty states surpassed one state each: Massachusetts (3rd to 2nd), North Dakota (7th to 6th), Illinois (19th to 18th), South Dakota (24th to 23rd), Oregon (25th to 24th), Pennsylvania (26th to 25th), Georgia (28th to 27th), Iowa (30th to 29th), North Carolina (31st to 30th), Wisconsin (32nd to 31st), Kansas (34th to 33rd), Indiana (37th to 36th), Florida (40th to 39th), Missouri (45th to 44th), South Carolina (48th to 47th), Maine (53rd to 52nd), Kentucky (54th to 53rd), Malta (63rd to 62nd), Estonia (68th to 67th), and Latvia (73rd to 72nd).  On the flip side, Sweden was bested by ten states and went from having the 27th highest per capita GDP to the 37th highest.  Denmark was bested by seven and went from 21st to 28th, while the Netherlands fell two spots from 39th to 45th.  Austria (42nd to 46th), Germany (50th to 54th), and Belgium (51st to 55th) were each bested by four states.  Ireland (5th to 7th) and Rhode Island (33rd to 35th) were each bested by two.  Twelve states were each surpassed by one: New York (2nd to 3rd), Delaware (4th to 5th), New Jersey (13th to 14th), Wyoming (14th to 15th), Nebraska (18th to 19th), Finland (47th to 48th), Montana (49th to 50th), the United Kingdom (58th to 59th), France (59th to 60th), Italy (62nd to 63rd), the Czech Republic (67th to 68th), and Lithuania (72nd to 73rd).

No US states were surpassed by any EU states over the quarter or year-over-year.  However, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, and Germany were surpassed by US states over the past quarter while Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and France were all surpassed by US states from last year.  This disparity is partially due to the rise of the dollar against the euro both over the course of the past year and past quarter.

Sources

Eurostat.  2019.  "GDP and Main Components."  Accessed May 22, 2019.  http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-406779_QID_60EF9FCD_UID_-3F171EB0&layout=TIME,C,X,0;GEO,L,Y,0;UNIT,L,Z,0;S_ADJ,L,Z,1;NA_ITEM,L,Z,2;INDICATORS,C,Z,3;&zSelection=DS-406779INDICATORS,OBS_FLAG;DS-406779UNIT,CP_MEUR;DS-406779S_ADJ,SCA;DS-406779NA_ITEM,B1GQ;&rankName1=UNIT_1_2_-1_2&rankName2=INDICATORS_1_2_-1_2&rankName3=NA-ITEM_1_2_-1_2&rankName4=S-ADJ_1_2_-1_2&rankName5=TIME_1_0_0_0&rankName6=GEO_1_2_0_1&sortC=ASC_-1_FIRST&rStp=&cStp=&rDCh=&cDCh=&rDM=true&cDM=true&footnes=false&empty=false&wai=false&time_mode=NONE&time_most_recent=false&lang=EN&cfo=%23%23%23%2C%23%23%23.%23%23%23.

Eurostat.  2017.  "Population on 1 January by Age Groups and Sex - Functional Urban Areas."  Accessed December 11, 2017.  http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=urb_lpop1&lang=en.

Federal Reserve.  2019.  "Foreign Exchange Rates."  Accessed May 26, 2019.  https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g5/.

US Bureau of Economic Analysis.  2019.  "GDP by State."  Accessed May 22, 2019.  https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gdp-state.

United States Census Bureau.  September 2012.  "United States Summary: 2010: Population and Housing Unit Counts."  Accessed January 23, 2018.  https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/cph-2-1.pdf.