California is world’s No. 4 economy. How do other states rank?
California is not the only state economy that’s a business powerhouse on a global scale.
The state’s businesses produced $4.1 trillion worth of goods and services in 2024, according to gross domestic product estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. GDP is a broad measure of economic output.
Not only was that the nation’s largest, but only three nations produced more, according to 2024 GDP stats from the International Monetary Fund. The U.S. was No. 1 with $29 trillion, China was next at $18.8 trillion, then Germany at $4.66 trillion.
How do other states rank in these global grades? Well, my trusty spreadsheet compared the 49 states with the 192 nations tracked by the IMF.
Texas, with its $2.7 trillion of GDP in 2024, would rank No. 8. That’s roughly the size of Italy’s economy. Here are the other states in last year’s global Top 25 …
No. 9 New York: $2.3 trillion in GDP in 2024 – roughly Canada’s economic size.
No. 16 Florida: $1.7 trillion – roughly Indonesia.
No. 19 Illinois: $1.1 trillion – roughly Saudi Arabia.
No. 20 Pennsylvania: $1 trillion – roughly Switzerland.
No. 21 Ohio: $928 billion – roughly Poland.
No. 22 Georgia: $883 billion – roughly Taiwan.
No. 22 Washington: $855 billion – roughly Taiwan.
No. 22 New Jersey: $847 billion – roughly Taiwan.
No. 22 North Carolina: $839 billion – roughly Taiwan.
No. 23 Massachusetts: $781 billion – roughly Belgium.
No. 23 Virginia: $764 billion – roughly Belgium.
No. 23 Michigan: $707 billion – roughly Belgium.
Even the smallest U.S. economies would squeeze into the top 100 globally …
No. 89 Alaska: $70 billion in 2024, which is roughly the size of Myanmar’s economy.
No. 93 Wyoming: $53 billion – roughly Cameroon.
No. 98 Vermont: $46 billion – roughly Paraguay.
By the way, California last year moved to fourth-largest from No. 5 on this worldwide scorecard by edging past Japan, which produced $4.03 trillion in 2024.
The ranking on this global scorecard for all 50 states and the District of Columbia can be found online at bit.ly/rank-economy or below.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com