Greece GDP Versus State GDPs

Posted on 12-July-2015 by mathscinotes

Quote of the Day

Long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity.

— Bruce Lee

I have been trying to understand the economic situation with Greece and its creditors, but it has been difficult because I do not have an intuitive feel for the size of the Greek economy. To understand a number, I need to relate it to something that I know.

While listening to a report on the radio this morning, I heard a commentator compare the size of the Greek economy to that of the state of Oregon – this one statement gave me an economic number that I can understand. As usual, I want to see if I can determine this relationship for myself, which is the subject of this post.

I immediately went to the Wikipedia and found a list of estimated US state (and DC) GDPs for 2015, and Global Finance magazine had a 2015 projection for the Greek GDP. I threw all this data into a pivot table and ranked Greece as if it were a US state. Table 1 shows my pivot table results – if Greece were a state, it would rank between Louisiana and Oregon. If Greece were a state, it would rank 25th in GDP. So the news report I heard this morning was accurate.

I now understand how big the Greek economy is. As another point of reference, I live in Minnesota, which ranks 17th in GDP among the states and has an economy ~29% larger than Greece.

A reader asked that I add a column on per capita GDP output, which I have added. If Greece were a state, it would have the least per capita GDP by a wide margin.

Table 1: Greece GDP Rank Against US States. Greece is marked in green.
State 2015 GSP $ Billions Employment $ Per Capita State $ Per Capita Rank State GDP Rank
California 2,287,021 16,068,487 142,330 8 1
Texas 1,602,584 11,662,708 137,411 11 2
New York 1,350,286 9,067,624 148,913 5 3
Florida 833,511 8,009,584 104,064 43 4
Illinois 742,407 5,844,090 127,036 16 5
Pennsylvania 664,872 5,716,507 116,307 26 6
Ohio 584,696 5,264,305 111,068 32 7
New Jersey 560,667 3,933,571 142,534 7 8
North Carolina 491,572 4,141,759 118,687 23 9
Georgia 472,423 4,131,921 114,335 27 10
Virginia 464,606 3,691,390 125,862 17 11
Massachusetts 462,748 3,415,603 135,481 13 12
Michigan 449,218 4,158,910 108,013 38 13
Washington 425,017 3,069,738 138,454 9 14
Maryland 351,234 2,590,346 135,593 12 15
Indiana 328,212 2,946,523 111,390 30 16
Minnesota 326,125 2,762,920 118,036 24 17
Colorado 309,721 2,478,017 124,987 18 18
Tennessee 296,602 2,822,069 105,101 41 19
Wisconsin 293,126 2,789,338 105,088 42 20
Arizona 288,924 2,630,831 109,822 35 21
Missouri 285,135 2,709,778 105,224 40 22
Connecticut 258,996 1,681,173 1,540,567 3 23
Louisiana 257,008 1,953,992 131,530 14 24
Greece 242,000 3,588,750 67,433 52 25
Oregon 229,241 1,755,437 130,589 15 26
Alabama 199,727 1,891,393 105,598 39 27
Oklahoma 192,176 1,614,262 119,049 22 28
South Carolina 190,176 1,931,437 98,463 48 29
Kentucky 189,667 1,852,240 102,399 45 30
Iowa 174,512 1,527,631 114,237 28 31
Kansas 149,153 1,377,212 108,301 37 32
Utah 148,017 1,324,169 111,781 29 33
Nevada 136,903 1,229,634 111,336 31 34
Arkansas 129,745 1,180,489 109,908 34 35
Nebraska 115,250 958,100 120,290 20 36
Mississippi 109,179 1118,557 97,607 49 37
District of Columbia 105,465 736,869 143,126 6 38
New Mexico 95,310 808,357 117,906 25 39
Hawaii 78,110 638,339 122,364 19 40
West Virginia 78,050 712,019 109,618 36 41
New Hampshire 70,118 637,953 109,911 33 42
Idaho 66,548 650,656 102,278 46 43
Delaware 65,029 432,956 150,198 4 44
North Dakota 62,772 454,792 138,024 10 45
Alaska 60,542 317,595 190,626 1 46
Maine 56,163 592,690 94,759 51 47
South Dakota 49,142 412,521 119,126 21 48
Wyoming 48,538 283,601 171,199 2 49
Rhode Island 45,962 471,533 97,474 50 50
Montana 45,846 442,175 103,683 44 51
Vermont 30,723 311,039 98,775 47 52

 

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2 Responses to Greece GDP Versus State GDPs

  1. Gary Reed says:
    13-July-2015 at 1:20 pm

    Interesting. Why don't you add population and calculate the per capita GDP?
    I'm guessing Greece would be way below any U.S. state.

    • mathscinotes says:
      13-July-2015 at 7:52 pm

      You bring up an interesting point. I have no idea what the relative productivity levels would be. I will take a look.

      mathscinotes

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