The United States' Borders Based on Gross Domestic Product

Nov 16, 2017
Cartogram map of GDP in the United States

The geographically accurate cartogram above represents the states' boundaries based on gross domestic product.  California, New York, and Texas take up large swaths of the country while Alaska nearly loses all of its territory.

Findings

  • New Jersey gains the most territory percentage-wise as it grows by 1,022 percent.
  • California gains the most land and surpass Texas and Alaska to become the largest state in the Union.
  • Alaska shrinks the most percentage-wise losing 99 percent of its territory, as well as in absolute terms and becomes the sixth smallest state.
  • Vermont becomes the smallest state in the Union.

Caveats

  • The GDP data is from 2016.
  • The borders represent the area of the state if it were based on GDP.  The location of the states on the map is irrelevant.

Details

Several states grow to more than twice their size including (in descending order of growth) New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Florida, California, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois.

The states that cede more than half of their territory are (in descending order of growth) Iowa, Colorado, Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Kansas, Utah, Maine, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska.

Data

StateGDP (in millions)Existing Area (sq km)Projected Area (based on GDP)Percent Change in Area
Alaska50,7133,494,72826,162-99
Montana45,994558,61423,387-96
Wyoming37,858346,62819,684-94
South Dakota48,139279,79024,274-91
North Dakota52,089270,63926,135-90
Idaho67,275303,07034,541-89
New Mexico93,297382,82547,676-88
Nevada147,475371,01274,751-80
Nebraska115,345267,84658,867-78
Maine59,275120,86229,951-75
Utah156,352284,70579,408-72
Kansas153,258272,67878,513-71
Oregon226,821349,188115,875-67
Arkansas120,689168,35161,669-63
Mississippi107,680147,28455,173-63
Oklahoma182,937223,11893,488-58
Arizona302,952358,367154,172-57
Colorado323,692347,462161,415-54
Vermont31,09234,67215,862-54
West Virginia73,37480,47137,387-54
Iowa178,766196,50391,578-53
Minnesota335,147316,470171,020-46
Alabama204,861159,756104,674-34
Missouri300,891230,683153,209-34
Kentucky197,043132,204100,897-24
Wisconsin309,536204,348157,896-23
Louisiana235,109143,056119,605-16
Washington469,739258,988239,277-8
Texas1,616,801809,540824,1532
South Carolina209,71697,356106,5749
Michigan487,239211,349248,55218
New Hampshire77,85533,25539,21918
Tennessee328,770134,940167,25224
Indiana341,909122,349174,76443
Georgia525,360181,772268,12048
North Carolina517,904158,397264,41367
Virginia494,349132,418252,33591
Illinois791,608190,941403,686111
Ohio625,715140,276318,604127
Pennsylvania724,936155,346370,002138
Hawaii83,91717,94742,945139
California2,602,672516,3521,326,865157
Florida926,817172,681472,784174
New York1,487,998173,574758,777337
Delaware70,3876,71135,521429
Maryland378,28034,354192,463460
Rhode Island57,4333,81429,006661
Connecticut263,37917,311134,521677
Massachusetts507,91328,731258,812801
New Jersey581,12226,405296,1781,022

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.

Filed under: Projecting Power