L.A. Scores Economic Bragging Rights
It’s been said that New York City isn’t very good at coming in second. In this case, though, it’s going to have to settle.
Los Angeles County ranked first in GDP with economic output of $656 billion in Bloomberg’s analysis of the latest county-by-county figures from the federal government. New York County, better known as Manhattan, placed second with $629.7 billion.
Bloomberg’s ranking was based on data from 2015, the most recent year for which Bureau of Economic Analysis figures are available. It found that L.A. County represented 27.1% of California’s total GDP for that year, or roughly the same as Harris County’s share of Texas GDP. Harris, which is home to Houston and its suburbs, generated $418.4 billion of GDP in 2015.
Among them, L.A., New York and Harris counties represent nearly $1 out of every $10 of economic output generated in the U.S., according to Bloomberg.
The nation’s most populous county with about 10 million residents, L.A. County is not only the entertainment capital of the U.S. It’s also the largest manufacturing center in the country, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Manufacturing across L.A. County generated 341,000 jobs and almost $25 billion in annual wages in 2017, Bloomberg reported. All in all, L.A. County’s annual GDP is on par with that of Saudi Arabia, according to Bloomberg.
Where L.A. County falls sort by comparison with New York County is productivity on a per-capita basis. That $656 billion divided by roughly 10 million means per-capita GDP of $65,354—good enough to rank the county in 45th place nationally. New York’s slightly smaller GDP and considerably smaller population base, about one-sixth of L.A. County’s, gave it a first-place ranking on per-capita GDP among the 3,000 U.S. counties.
The isle of Manhattan also contributes a bigger share of New York State’s GDP: 46%, according to Bloomberg. However, that contribution falls short of the Bloomberg ranking’s other top three, for percentage of state GDP. Honolulu County represents 78.2% of Hawaii’s GDP, followed by Arizona’s Maricopa County with 72.3% of state GDP and Nevada’s Clark County with 71.9%.
For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Paul Bubny
- ◦Economy
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