The US Economy Split In Two: The Orange & Blue Areas Each Contribute 50% of America’s GDP

Map created by Sasha TrubetskoyThe map above shows an interesting fact about the United States, despite being the 4th largest country in the world by land area, it’s population and even more so it’s GDP is concentrated in just a few Urban areas.

Both the orange and blue areas each contribute 50% of America’s GDP.

From the author:

The map shows a 50-50 split of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United States.

The GDP of the cyan area is equal to the GDP of the orange area. This would equate to $8.10 trillion for each colored half in the above map. [Note this map is now a decade out of date and the numbers today would be: $11.34 trillion each]

The orange areas are the 23 largest metro areas (technically MSA’s) by GDP. When added together, their figure equals that of the rest of the country.

What inspired me to do this was the simplicity of the half-and-half split.

Sure, you can easily divide the country’s economy north-south or east-west, but I set out to visualize the divide in a way that was more visually striking.

Searching for the most lopsided possible split, I sifted through GDP data and realized that the top six metro areas account for a quarter of GDP.

That got me curious on the half-and-half split, which I then proceeded to illustrate. The resulting map shows how geographically concentrated the country’s economic resources are.

My data comes from this publication by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, part of the Department of Commerce.

Interestingly, despite the map being over a decade old the data holds true today as it did back then.

And in case you’re wondering here are the 23 Metropolitan Areas that make up 50% of the US GDP with their 2023 GDP figures:

1. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $1,905,237,359
2. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $1,075,056,705
3. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $725,745,075
4. San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $681,890,371
5. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $613,381,002
6. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $600,169,021
7. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $550,795,536
8. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $515,386,134
9. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $487,774,172
10. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $471,655,708
11. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $459,530,623
12. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $431,882,272
13. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $392,455,628
14. Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $322,794,256
15. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $286,739,259
16. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $276,493,740
17. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $261,671,687
18. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $258,989,249
19. Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $213,539,532
20. Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $207,470,114
21. Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $206,547,241
22. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $201,185,094
23. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL (Metropolitan Statistical Area): $198,914,787

Oh and in case you’re wondering these 23 Metropolitan Statistical Areas had total population 133 million in 2020 or just 40% of the United States total population of 329.5 million people.

And here’s the map again using an attentive colour scheme by factswithmaps.

And finally another version this time splitting the US into quarters

Created by reddit user atrubetskoy

What do you think?