California Now The World’s Fifth Largest Economy
The state of California is now ranked as the 5th world’s largest economy, surpassing that of the United Kingdom – even though it’s just a state in the US. California’s gross domestic product rose by $127 billion between 2016 and 2017, reaching $2.7 trillion. Within the same period, the UK’s economic growth slightly decreased, mainly due to the fluctuation in the US dollar.
California is home to 39.5 million people, only 26.1 million less than that of the entire UK. California is also home to Silicon Valley and Hollywood, aiding the GDP growth. All economic sectors, bar agriculture, contributed to the growing GDP of California, with real estate leading the growth at $26 billion. Other sectors include the information sector – including some technology companies – rising $20 billion, and manufacturing was up $10 billion.
While California did hold 5th place in 2002, the economy crash in 2012 caused it to drop to tenth place. Shockingly, within the past six years the US state has added more than 2 million jobs and had a GDP growth of $700 billion. Most of the growth has come from coastal areas, with economics professor at University of California Lee Ohanian saying:
“The non-coastal areas of CA have not generated nearly as much economic growth as the coastal areas.”
California’s economic output is only beaten by the US, China, Japan, and Germany, and the state’s GDP accounts for 1/7th of the entire GDP of the United States – 14.2%.
