The chart above shows the Purchasing Power Parity Gross Domestic Product (GDP PPP) of US regions per square mile of territory in US dollars. The Northeast has such a high GDP per area that it would be nearly twice as much as the three other regions combined.
Findings
- The difference between the largest GDP PPP per area region, the Northeast, and the smallest, the West, is $19,147,024.
- The Northeast's GDP PPP per area, is 8.78 times larger than the West's.
- The South which has the second largest GDP per area, only has less than one-third the GDP per area of the Northeast.
- The Midwest has a GDP per area that is seven-tenths of the South, and the West has one that is just over half the Midwest's.
Caveats
- Area data is from 2010.
- GDP data is from 2016.
- The area includes both land and water area.
- The Northeastern US consists of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
- The Southern US consists of Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
- The Midwestern US consists of Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
- The Western US consists of California, Washington, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Hawaii, Idaho, Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming.
Details
Seeing as the Northeast has the top seven states in this metric, it is no surprise the it would fare so well as a region. Even though California ranks up there with Northeastern states, the geography of states like Alaska is so vast that it brings the Western region down dramatically.
It also helps that the Northeast is geographically small when compared to the other three regions while at the same time it also manages to maintain a fairly similar population to the other regions.
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.
United States Census Bureau. "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2016." Accessed December 12, 2017. http://factfinder2.census.gov.