Texas wins in U.S. economy shift

By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY

Updated 1d 1h ago

Texas became the USA's second-largest economy during the past decade — displacing New York and perhaps heading one day toward challenging California — in one of the biggest economic shifts in the past half-century.

 

In this July 20, 2010 photo, Cedric James, left, admissions director with MyComputerCareer.Com,meets with a prospective job applicant at a National Career Fairs Job Fair in Plano, Texas.

The dramatic realignment of the nation's economy was illustrated by North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia all overtaking one-time industrial powerhouse Michigan in economic size from 2000 to 2010. The economic winners of the last decade are states that focus on raw materials, government and senior citizens. The big losers are places that make things — industrial states and even California.

USA TODAY examined each state's gross domestic product to determine how the country's economic output has shifted within its borders. The data, recently released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, reflect both population growth and income increases — in short, the economic weight of each state.

Texas notched one of the biggest increases in size in a half-century, surpassing $1 trillion in annual economic output. The state gained nearly a full percentage point in its share of the U.S. economy during the decade, reaching 8.3% in 2010. This growth in economic clout has been matched only twice in the past 50 years — by California in the 1980s and Texas itself during the 1970s oil boom.

"We're growing faster than everyone else, and this trend should last a good while," says economic forecaster Raymond Berryhill of Waco, Texas. His state enjoyed "good fortune and good planning" from having natural resources, immigration and successful technology businesses while avoiding the real estate bubble, he says.

Florida's share of the national economy grew more than any state except Texas as seniors took their wealth south. But it was the long-booming state's smallest growth of any decade since the government began keeping track in the 1960s.

Other ups and downs:

•California. The state's share of the national economy peaked in 1990 but shrank faster than all but three states from 2000 to 2010. It's hard for a large economy — at $1.9 trillion, the nation's largest — to keep growing fast, especially when hit by a housing downturn, says Stephen Levy of the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy.

•Virginia. The federal government-fueled suburbs of Washington, D.C., led this state and neighboring Maryland to a decade of prosperity.

•Michigan. Michigan and Ohio were the only states to end the decade economically smaller than when it began. "Michigan was the place that created the 20th-century middle class — the well-paying factory job," says Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future, an economic research group. "It ended so quickly we fell off the cliff."

Economic rank	State	2010 GDP	% change from 2000
1	California	1,901	17.8
2	Texas	1,207	26.8
3	New York	1,160	19.8
4	Florida	748	22.7
5	Illinois	652	8.2
6	Pennsylvania	570	11.8
7	New Jersey	487	11.6
8	Ohio	478	-0.7
9	North Carolina	425	20.3
10	Virginia	424	27.6
11	Georgia	403	9.8
12	Michigan	384	-7.1
13	Massachusetts	379	13.5
14	Washington	340	18.3
15	Maryland	295	26.3
16	Indiana	276	10.6
17	Minnesota	270	15.3
18	Colorado	258	20.5
19	Tennessee	255	15.5
20	Arizona	254	27.5
21	Wisconsin	248	11.1
22	Missouri	244	6.1
23	Connecticut	237	14.1
24	Louisiana	219	16.2
25	Oregon	174	37.5
26	Alabama	173	16.2
27	South Carolina	164	10.9
28	Kentucky	163	12.7
29	Oklahoma	148	21.0
30	Iowa	143	21.3
31	Kansas	127	16.5
32	Nevada	126	26.7
33	Utah	115	29.1
34	Arkansas	103	18.8
35	Mississippi	97	14.6
36	Nebraska	90	22.3
37	New Mexico	80	24.4
38	Hawaii	67	21.8
39	West Virginia	65	13.0
40	Delaware	62	19.9
41	New Hampshire	60	12.0
42	Idaho	55	28.6
43	Maine	52	10.3
44	Rhode Island	49	14.8
45	Alaska	49	32.0
46	South Dakota	40	35.1
47	Wyoming	39	48.7
48	Montana	36	23.4
49	North Dakota	35	47.1
50	Vermont	26	15.9
-	United States	14,552	16.7
-	Washington, D.C.	103	29.9

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