GDP by state and industry illustrates the pandemic’s effect

Recent GDP data shows the sharp effects of the pandemic on production, but it is not uniform among the states and industries.

BEA defines gross domestic product as “the value of the goods and services produced by the nation’s economy less the value of the goods and services used up in production.” It is the value of the final goods and services produced, and is one of the most common statistics used to chart the growth of economies.

BEA, the Bureau of Economic Analysis is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce. One series BEA produces is gross domestic product (GDP) by state for industry sectors on an quarterly basis. I’ve gathered this data and have presented it in an interactive visualization.

Looking at the nearby example from the visualization, which covers the past three years, we can easily make a few observations. First, looking at the rows for “All industry total” and “Private industries,” the effect of the response to the pandemic is profound.

(The first quarter of the year is January through March, and the second quarter is April through June. The stay-at-home orders began in March, so they affected the first quarter only partially. By the second quarter, more such orders were in effect.)

The decline in GDP for “Government and government enterprises” is less, while “Accommodation and food services” was severely affected.

Another example shows GDP for all industries for all states, with Kansas highlighted. Kansas is near the middle of the states, which aligns with my reporting from yesterday on second-quarter GDP: “While GDP fell in all states, Kansas performed better than most, ranking nineteenth.” See Kansas GDP.

To learn more about the data and access the interactive visualization, click here.