In the state-economy race, it’s North Dakota, and everyone else

Everyone loves a good race, except when it’s a runaway, a laugher. In the case of gross domestic product at the state level, nobody’s much enjoying the race, save for North Dakota.

In recent data published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, North Dakota had easily the highest gross state product in the country, at 7.6 percent, almost 3 percentage points higher than next-place Oregon. Among Ninth District states, Michigan’s economy appears to be finding some footing, thanks to a resurgent auto industry, ranking sixth in the country last year at 2.3 percent (see Chart 1). No other district state managed to outperform the national average of 1.5 percent.*

Maybe more impressive has been the Peace Garden state’s economic stamina. Since 2008, the state has seen its economy grow by 19.7 percent. Only one other state (Louisiana, at 11.9 percent) saw a growth rate even half as fast as North Dakota’s over this period.

There was also some shuffling among district states in their economic performance over this longer period. For example, Minnesota and Wisconsin economies both outperformed the national average since 2008, while Michigan went from the top quintile last year to bottom quintile for this longer period (see Chart 2).

*One methodological note: U.S. GDP values listed here may differ from the National Income and Product Account (NIPA) values because of revisions to both NIPA values and GDP-by-state accounts, which exclude federal military and civilian activity located overseas, which cannot be attributed to particular states.