Economic Growth and Contraction in EU and US States between 2008 and 2017

Jun 29, 2018
Chart of change in GDP in EU and US states between 2008 and 2017

The chart above shows change in GDP over the last ten years in EU and US states.  Only two US states rank in the top ten in economic growth over the past decade.  Conversely, US states make up seven of the ten worst performers but it is an EU state that has had the worst economic contraction by far.

Findings

  • The difference between the state with the greatest growth in GDP, Malta, and the state with the least, Louisiana, is 80.93 percentage points.
  • Malta has 134.45 times the economic growth that Louisiana does in the past decade.
  • The mean economic growth for the 50 US states is 11.36 percent and the median is 11.22 percent.
  • The mean economic growth for the 28 EU states is 22.03 percent and the median is 19.19 percent.
  • The mean economic growth for the 78 EU and US states is 15.19 percent and the median is 13.43 percent.

Caveats

  • All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
  • EU and US data come from different sources.

Details

Only two US states grew by one-quarter in the last ten years while 12 EU states managed to grow that much in the same time period.  However, only an EU state has lost one-quarter of its economy while no US states contracted more than 10 percent.

The European Union as a whole has 17.31 percent growth over the same ten year period ranking it just under the Iowa and above Tennessee.  The United States as a whole has 13.56 percent growth over the same ten year period ranking it under Minnesota and just above Maryland.

Sources

Eurostat.  2018.  "Eurostat - Tables, Graphs and Maps Interface."  Accessed June 26, 2018.  http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tec00001&plugin=1.

US Department of Commerce.  2018.  "US Bureau of Economic Analysis."  Accessed June 26, 2018.  https://bea.gov/itable/iTable.cfm?ReqID=70&step=1#reqid=70&step=10&isuri=1&7003=1000&7035=-1&7004=naics&7005=1&7006=01000,02000,04000,05000,06000,08000,09000,10000,11000,12000,13000,15000,16000,17000,18000,19000,20000,21000,22000,23000,24000,25000,26000,27000,28000,29000,30000,31000,32000,33000,34000,35000,36000,37000,38000,39000,40000,41000,42000,44000,45000,46000,47000,48000,49000,50000,51000,53000,54000,55000,56000&7036=-1&7001=11000&7002=1&7090=70&7007=2017,2016,2015,2014,2013,2012,2011,2010,2009,2008,2007,2006&7093=levels.