This State Is Richer Than Indonesia, Israel and South Korea Combined
No country can come close to matching the wealth of America. The United States is so rich, in fact, that each state — plus the District of Columbia — boasts an economy that is larger than that of at least one entire country.
As part of a comprehensive study on the wealth of American states, GOBankingRates analyzed the GDPs of every state in America and Washington, D.C., along with the gross domestic products of nations around the world, to determine which U.S. states are wealthier than whole countries. Once the GDP of every state was determined, values were compared to nations with equal-to-less-than GDP value. Populations of both the state and country were evaluated to see the size difference between the two in comparison to wealth. The data for state GDPs comes from the first quarter of 2017 and is sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Country GDP data was sourced from the World Bank.
Click through to see how your state’s economy stacks up to the economies of countries around the world.
How Does Your State Measure Up?
California is home to America’s largest economy, followed by Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois. The Golden State’s GDP is bigger than even that of the mighty United Kingdom. Additionally, California is richer than several countries combined, including Indonesia, Israel and South Korea. Texas trumps Canada, New York tops South Korea, and Florida and Illinois beat out Indonesia and the Netherlands, respectively.
You can use this information to see how your state compares to a country with a similar economy. You might find your state is much richer than even one of the world’s wealthier countries. On the other hand, you might learn your state barely edges out a remote developing country. No matter where you live, however, your state’s economy creates a GDP that is bigger than that of at least one entire nation.
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Even Little States Do Big Business
On the other end of the spectrum is Vermont, which is home to the smallest economy in America. Even so, it’s big enough to top the GDP of Latvia. The next four smallest GDP states — Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Alaska — are bigger than Vermont geographically, but, not surprisingly, are among the most sparsely populated states. Like Vermont, those states have GDPs that are slightly larger than the economies of mostly Eastern European countries, including Slovenia, Belarus and Croatia, although Jordan also makes the bottom five.
In many cases, American states topped the economies of entire countries, even though those countries have drastically larger populations. New Hampshire, Oregon, Michigan and Florida, for example, beat out countries with nine-figure population advantages. The most dramatic is Indonesia, which has a smaller economy than Florida despite having nearly 240 million more people.
Here is a list of the gross domestic product, expressed in millions, for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as the GDP of the corresponding country with an economy most comparable to that state.
State vs. Country GDP | |||
State Name | State GDP (expressed in millions) | Country | Country GDP (expressed in millions) |
Alabama | $209,835 | Vietnam | $205,276 |
Alaska | $52,530 | Croatia | $50,715 |
Arizona | $311,640 | Denmark | $306,900 |
Arkansas | $122,647 | Kuwait | $110,876 |
California | $2,670,788 | U.K. | $2,647,899 |
Colorado | $332,938 | Hong Kong | $320,910 |
Connecticut | $267,914 | Chile | $247,028 |
Delaware | $71,998 | Kenya | $70,529 |
District of Columbia | $129,638 | Hungary | $125,817 |
Florida | $955,647 | Indonesia | $932,259 |
Georgia | $537,264 | Poland | $471,364 |
Hawaii | $85,205 | Sri Lanka | $81,322 |
Idaho | $69,458 | Guatemala | $68,763 |
Illinois | $803,904 | Netherlands | $777,228 |
Indiana | $349,409 | United Arab Emirates | $348,743 |
Iowa | $180,758 | Iraq | $171,489 |
Kansas | $155,204 | Qatar | $152,453 |
Kentucky | $203,531 | Czech Republic | $195,305 |
Louisiana | $239,590 | Finland | $238,503 |
Maine | $60,226 | Luxembourg | $58,631 |
Maryland | $388,324 | Norway | $371,076 |
Massachusetts | $519,970 | Iran | $418,977 |
Michigan | $499,336 | Nigeria | $404,653 |
Minnesota | $342,856 | Egypt | $332,791 |
Mississippi | $109,305 | Ecuador | $98,614 |
Missouri | $306,535 | Philippines | $304,905 |
Montana | $46,873 | Slovenia | $44,709 |
Nebraska | $116,545 | Morocco | $103,606 |
Nevada | $152,736 | Kazakhstan | $137,278 |
New Hampshire | $79,665 | Ethiopia | $72,374 |
New Jersey | $592,017 | Sweden | $514,460 |
New Mexico | $96,742 | Sudan | $95,584 |
New York | $1,500,994 | South Korea | $1,411,246 |
North Carolina | $529,649 | Belgium | $467,956 |
North Dakota | $53,740 | Uruguay | $52,420 |
Ohio | $643,444 | Argentinia | $545,476 |
Oklahoma | $188,668 | Romania | $187,592 |
Oregon | $231,662 | Bangladesh | $221,415 |
Pennsylvania | $746,248 | Switzerland | $668,851 |
Rhode Island | $58,884 | Costa Rica | $57,436 |
South Carolina | $214,383 | Vietnam | $205,276 |
South Dakota | $48,887 | Belarus | $47,407 |
Tennessee | $336,664 | Israel | $317,745 |
Texas | $1,682,888 | Canada | $1,529,760 |
Utah | $161,541 | Algeria | $159,049 |
Vermont | $31,767 | Latvia | $27,573 |
Virginia | $505,925 | Thailand | $407,026 |
Washington | $482,445 | Austria | $390,800 |
West Virginia | $76,682 | Dominican Republic | $71,584 |
Wisconsin | $317,218 | Ireland | $304,819 |
Wyoming | $39,247 | Jordan | $38,655 |
Click to find out the average income in your state to see how you compare.
Methodology: GOBanking Rates analyzed the gross domestic product of U.S. states along with the GDP of countries around the world to determine which states are wealthier than whole countries. Once the GDP of every state was determined, values were compared to nations with equal-to-less-than GDP value. Populations of both state and country were evaluated to see the size difference between the two in comparison to wealth. U.S. state GDP data is from Q1 2017, sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Country GDP data was sourced from the World Bank using the most recent data available, which is 2016.
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: This State Is Richer Than Indonesia, Israel and South Korea Combined