New Macro Dataset

This morning the BEA released the first county-level GDP data for the U.S. Here’s the news release, and here’s where to find all the numbers.

Annual data is provided for four years, 2015-18.

The GMP (Gross Metropolitan Product) data series will be discontinued. Now you can slice and dice that at the county level if you don’t like the official definitions of metro areas. I do wish the data, as released, had filters for the metro areas.

What trivia did I spot?

• There appear to be 3,112 county entries. This does not match up with the number of counties in the U.S. Still trying to figure out what’s missing.
• There are some entries for independent cities and combination entities (independent cities and their surrounding counties) from Virginia. This makes the undercount above more severe. Again, not a biggie, but I have to figure it out.
• My own small county in rural, southwestern Utah, has a GCP of $1,500M (larger than about 2 dozen countries).
• The smallest county is Issaquena in Mississippi with a GCP of just over $18M.
• The largest is Los Angeles (County) at $711,000M. Its’ just a tad smaller than Pennsylvania, and larger than 44 states.
• New York County, basically Manhattan, has a GCP of $600,000M. I was surprised at how large that is relative to the other boroughs of New York: Kings County (Brooklyn) and Queens are about $85,000M. The Bronx and Staten Island are far smaller. Nassau and Suffolk in the suburbs is about the same size.
• Salt Lake County, where I once lived, which is about half the metropolitan area comes in at $81,000M
• Orleans Parish, where I once lived, it down to $23,000M. It’s not even the largest parish in the state anymore. Even with the surrounding parishes added in, New Orleans is now far smaller than Utah’s Wastach Front.
• Erie County, New York, where I grew up, comes in at $51,600M.
• I also lived for two years in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. It’s at $8,600M