GDP and GDP Per Capita Growth between 2005 and 2016 in the European Union and the United States

The chart above shows both the change in overall GDP (y-axis) and per capita GDP (x-axis) over a period of 11 years for EU and US states.  All states except for one have experienced growth from 2005 to 2016.  However, several states saw their per capita GDP decrease.

Findings

• Greece is the only state whose overall GDP and GDP per capita have fallen from 2005.
• Fourteen states saw a drop in their per capita GDP: Nevada, Greece, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, Delaware, Connecticut, North Carolina, Idaho, Virginia, Alabama, South Carolina, and Maine.  Thirteen are from the US while only one is from the EU.
• Four states doubled their GDP, three from the EU and one from the US.  North Dakota is primarily due to the oil boom, whereas Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia's increase is probably due to their accession into the EU.
• Five states doubled their per capita GDP and they all hail from the EU.  Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia are all relatively recent additions to the Union.

Caveats

• The US data is in dollars and the EU data is in euros.  The dollar averaged €0.80 in 2005 and €0.77 in 2016.
• Last year was selected because it was the last year records were available for, and 2005 was selected because that is how far back the data in Eurostat goes.

Details

The range of per capita GDP in the EU is €83,900 while the range in the US is only $33,664.  That amounts to less than half!  The corresponding ranges for 2005 were €61,400 in the EU and $36,712 in the US.  US states have narrowed their difference while EU states have become less equal.

However, the range in overall GDP has widened in both superstates.  The EU range went from €2.295 trillion to €3.134 trillion while the US range went from $1.743 trillion to $2.571 trillion.  US states are still more equal to each other than EU states are.

It's interesting to note that all US states form one cluster, while the EU has four notable clusters: Germany, France, Italy, UK and Spain; eastern and the rest of southern Europe; Luxembourg; and every other state.

The larger economies in the EU do not have the larger per capita GDPs whereas the larger economies in the US tend to be amongst the states with the highest per capita GDPs.

California has overtaken France and the United Kingdom to become the second largest economy amongst the EU and US states.  Texas has overtaken New York to become the sixth largest, Pennsylvania surpassed the Netherlands to the 11th spot, Georgia has overtaken Michigan to 15, as has North Carolina which registers at 16, as well Massachusetts and Virginia which are now 17th and 18th largest respectively.  Washington overtook Sweden to 20th largest.  Below there, numerous countries overtook each other.  The most notable difference is Greece which dropped from 36th largest economy in the EU and US to 46th.

Luxembourg however, overcame both Delaware and Connecticut to have the largest per capita GDP.  Massachusetts surpassed them as well to have the second highest per capita GDP.  New York did the same to come in at three and Alaska surpassed Delaware to rank 5th in per capita GDP.  Notable moves in per capita GDP include North Dakota rising from a rank of 40 to 7, Ireland from 42 to 9, Nevada from 9 to 39, Virginia from 11 to 20, Georgia from 19 to 33, Louisiana from 21 to 38, Denmark from 43 to 25, and Sweden from 52 to 31.

Data

State	GDP Per Capita 2005	GDP Per Capita 2016	GDP 2005 (in millions)	GDP 2016 (in millions)	Percent Change in GDP Per Capita	Percent Change in GDP
North Dakota	41,272	62,837	24,622	52,089	52.25	111.55
Romania	3,800	8,600	80,225.6	169,578.1	126.32	111.38
Slovakia	7,300	14,900	39,348.3	81,154	104.11	106.25
Bulgaria	3,100	6,800	23,852.7	48,128.6	119.35	101.77
Malta	12,700	22,700	5,142.1	9,943.1	78.74	93.37
Estonia	8,300	16,000	11,262.3	21,098.3	92.77	87.34
Lithuania	6,300	13,500	21,002.4	38,668.3	114.29	84.11
Latvia	6,100	12,700	13,726.2	24,926.7	108.2	81.6
Luxembourg	64,500	90,700	30,031	53,004.8	40.62	76.5
Poland	6,500	11,100	246,201.3	425,980.2	70.77	73.02
Utah	41,657	44,636	94,475	156,352	7.15	65.5
Texas	45,966	53,795	990,054	1,616,801	17.03	63.3
Ireland	40,900	58,800	170,188.4	275,567.1	43.77	61.92
Czech Republic	10,700	16,700	109,627.7	176,564.3	56.07	61.06
Washington	51,956	56,831	296,403	469,739	9.38	58.48
Nebraska	46,062	53,114	73,455	115,345	15.31	57.03
Oregon	42,558	50,582	147,535	226,821	18.85	53.74
South Dakota	42,762	48,076	31,380	48,139	12.43	53.41
Montana	36,120	39,356	30,637	45,994	8.96	50.13
Sweden	34,700	46,900	313,218	465,200.6	35.16	48.52
California	53,320	58,619	1,766,693	2,602,672	9.94	47.32
Massachusetts	58,776	65,545	345,059	507,913	11.52	47.2
Colorado	51,473	52,795	220,454	323,692	2.57	46.83
Kansas	41,736	46,982	104,884	153,258	12.57	46.12
Oklahoma	37,662	44,623	125,243	182,937	18.48	46.07
South Carolina	37,397	37,063	143,585	209,716	-0.89	46.06
New York	58,502	64,579	1,023,433	1,487,998	10.39	45.39
North Carolina	45,042	44,325	357,168	517,904	-1.59	45
Iowa	45,554	50,315	123,353	178,766	10.45	44.92
Tennessee	41,868	43,267	227,505	328,770	3.34	44.51
Maryland	51,960	55,404	263,809	378,280	6.63	43.39
Hawaii	50,145	51,277	58,573	83,917	2.26	43.27
Pennsylvania	45,035	50,997	506,505	724,936	13.24	43.13
Idaho	35,895	35,466	47,176	67,275	-1.2	42.6
Indiana	42,826	45,317	245,197	341,909	5.82	39.44
Austria	30,900	40,400	254,075	353,296.9	30.74	39.05
Slovenia	14,600	19,600	29,235.4	40,418.1	34.25	38.25
Wyoming	57,642	58,821	27,454	37,858	2.05	37.9
Virginia	52,305	51,736	359,273	494,349	-1.09	37.6
Minnesota	52,246	53,704	243,933	335,147	2.79	37.39
West Virginia	33,628	36,315	53,453	73,374	7.99	37.27
Kentucky	38,205	38,985	143,875	197,043	2.04	36.95
Wisconsin	45,131	47,266	226,325	309,536	4.73	36.77
Germany	28,300	38,100	2,300,860	3,144,050	34.63	36.65
New Hampshire	48,357	51,794	57,282	77,855	7.11	35.92
Belgium	29,700	37,500	311,480.8	423,048.4	26.26	35.82
Georgia	47,610	44,723	388,342	525,360	-6.06	35.28
Illinois	51,237	54,091	586,442	791,608	5.57	34.98
Missouri	42,806	43,317	224,091	300,891	1.19	34.27
Ohio	44,684	47,567	467,392	625,715	6.45	33.87
Arkansas	35,649	36,368	90,319	120,689	2.02	33.63
Arizona	43,018	38,590	227,358	302,952	-10.29	33.25
Florida	43,326	39,543	700,267	926,817	-8.73	32.35
Delaware	67,525	63,664	53,247	70,387	-5.72	32.19
Vermont	41,588	43,946	23,539	31,092	5.67	32.09
Mississippi	30,813	31,881	81,678	107,680	3.47	31.83
Finland	31,300	39,200	164,387	215,615	25.24	31.16
New Jersey	56,768	57,084	443,148	581,122	0.56	31.13
Alabama	37,578	37,261	156,750	204,861	-0.84	30.69
Denmark	39,300	48,400	212,832.3	277,339.4	23.16	30.31
Netherlands	33,400	41,300	545,609	702,641	23.65	28.78
Maine	38,961	38,921	46,277	59,275	-0.1	28.09
Croatia	8,500	11,100	36,508.4	46,284.9	30.59	26.78
Alaska	61,125	63,971	40,063	50,713	4.66	26.58
France	28,100	33,300	1,771,978	2,228,857	18.51	25.78
Rhode Island	47,176	47,639	45,663	57,433	0.98	25.78
New Mexico	41,193	41,348	74,403	93,297	0.38	25.39
Connecticut	66,032	64,511	210,170	263,379	-2.3	25.32
Hungary	9,000	11,600	90,948.9	113,730.8	28.89	25.05
Nevada	54,790	43,820	118,785	147,475	-20.02	24.15
Michigan	42,919	43,372	395,166	487,239	1.06	23.3
Cyprus	20,400	21,300	15,039.3	18,122.5	4.41	20.5
Spain	21,300	24,100	930,566	1,118,522	13.15	20.2
United Kingdom	33,600	36,500	2,027,472.9	2,393,133.5	8.63	18.04
Louisiana	47,004	43,917	199,683	235,109	-6.57	17.74
Portugal	15,100	17,900	158,652.6	185,179.5	18.54	16.72
Italy	25,600	27,700	1,489,725.5	1,680,522.8	8.2	12.81
Greece	18,100	16,200	199,242.3	174,199.3	-10.5	-12.57

Sources

US Bureau of Economic Analysis.  2017.  "Regional Data."  Accessed October 26, 2017.  https://bea.gov/itable/iTable.cfm?ReqID=70&step=1#reqid=70&step=1&isuri=1.

Eurostat.  2017.  "Gross Domestic Product at Market Prices.  Accessed October 26, 2017.  http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/refreshTableAction.do?tab=table&plugin=1&pcode=tec00001&language=en.