Something That's Been Bugging Me

[drplokta]

All the (UK) press coverage of the impending Californian electoral debacle says that California has the fifth biggest economy in the world (or would, if it were an independent nation). But the UK is the fourth largest economy in the world, and France is fifth, and there's barely a gnat's whisker of difference between them. So does California really squeeze into the tiny gap, or are the journos all just copying someone else's mistake?

Comments

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

Sounds as though it would be difficult to judge with any accuracy, given that there would be so many little bits that would be hard to categorise as "California" or "USA"

[redbird]

I'm sure they're all copying each other, but those sorts of number games are always weird: for example, they assume that California is sliced out and then treat the rest of the US as a single economy. Like the signs saying "Welcome to Brooklyn, 4th largest city in the USA", which pretend that Brooklyn didn't unite with New York in 1898 but that Queens and Staten Island did.

[numbat.livejournal.com]

I've long assumed newspeople use phrases like this because they give the story a factual tone rather than because they're proveably accurate.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

The GDP of California is around, or was, about 10% of the entire US of $10,000 billion or so, which does give it the same order of economic size as the UK and France. At one point California was something like 13% of the entire US economy, but its shrunk slight over recent years.

I think you'll also find that in the next figures, with the recent bounce back in the Euro, the UK is back to being the 5th.

Although this is all a bit complex as Indian and China are coming up fast and will soon displace the UK and France in that table.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Its easier than you think, because the states all collect taxes and tax on a state by state basis, plus they have distinct legal structures and there are a lot of rules on money transfer over state boundaries and the like.

It makes it quite easy.

Although I can't find a table which is a pain.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

This graph here gives a GSP (Gross State Product) for California of $1.178 trillion.

[drplokta]

And I think UK and France are both around $1.5 trillion. That probably makes California 7th, behind Italy as well.