State

A blog post from BEA Director Vipin Arora

An old boss of mine was fond of a BEA product that many of our users don’t know about—regional price parities (RPPs). He said regional price parities are BEA’s most underappreciated statistic. While I love all our products equally—just like I love all my kids equally—I can’t help but agree that the RPPs are a gem that sometimes gets overlooked. I hope you won’t overlook the new RPP data coming Thursday, Dec. 12.

BEA's economic modeling tool that helps users analyze how a proposed project would ripple through a region's economy is now updated with new benchmark data.

State and local governments, civic leaders, planners, investors, and others use the tool to assess the economic impact of projects or events within their selected area. For example, building an apartment complex would require buying building materials from local retailers and wholesalers, leasing equipment, and hiring tradespeople. Employees of these and other local businesses would have additional wages to spend, perhaps on household needs or recreation.

BEA has released a set of prototype statistics that help assess how households share in each state’s economic growth. The statistics, now available for 2022, show how personal income is distributed across each state’s households and provide metrics that can be used to study income inequality.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased in all 50 states and the District of Columbia in the third quarter of 2023, with the percent change ranging from 9.7 percent in Kansas to 0.7 percent in Arkansas.

In the third quarter of 2023, real GDP for the nation grew at an annual rate of 4.9 percent. Real GDP also increased in 15 of the 23 industry groups for which BEA prepares quarterly state estimates. 

Statistics for every state and the District of Columbia were added today to BEA’s prototype statistics on the distribution of U.S. personal income. This provides a new tool for assessing how households share in each state’s economic growth. 

For example, the share of state personal income received by the top 20 percent of households in 2021 ranged from lows of 43.1 percent in Maine and 43.7 percent in Maryland to highs of 53.8 percent in Connecticut and 54.1 percent in Wyoming, according to the prototype statistics.

A blog post from BEA Director Vipin Arora

I recently bought a pair of shorts that fit just right. They were so good that I bought a pair of jeans from the same brand. Somehow—and we've all been here—the jeans fit tighter than the shorts, even though they were made by the same company. This isn't too different from what I sometimes go through as a data user.

Personal income, in current dollars, increased in 49 states and the District of Columbia in the second quarter of 2023, with the percent change ranging from 6.1 percent in New York and the District of Columbia to –2.7 percent in Maine.

The outdoor recreation economy accounted for 1.9 percent ($454.0 billion) of current-dollar gross domestic product (GDP) for the nation in 2021. At the state level, outdoor recreation value added as a share of GDP ranged from 4.8 percent in Hawaii to 1.3 percent in New York and Connecticut. The share was 0.9 percent in the District of Columbia.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased in 864 counties, decreased in 2,234 counties, and was unchanged in 14 counties in 2020. The percent change in real GDP ranged from 91.0 percent in Foard County, TX, to –29.0 percent in Skagway Municipality, AK. GDP estimates were impacted by the response to the spread of COVID-19, as governments issued and lifted “stay-at-home” orders. The full economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be quantified in the county GDP estimates, because the impacts are generally embedded in source data and cannot be separately identified.

The new U.S. data show that the outdoor recreation economy accounted for 1.8 percent ($374.3 billion) of current-dollar gross domestic product for the nation in 2020. At the state level, outdoor recreation value added as a share of state GDP ranged from 4.3 percent in Montana to 1.2 percent in New York and Connecticut. The share was 0.8 percent in the District of Columbia. Outdoor recreation estimates were impacted by the response to the spread of COVID-19, as governments issued and lifted "stay-at-home" orders. This led to rapid changes in demand as consumers canceled, restricted, or redirected their spending.