By Adam Pagnucco.
Part One summarized the premise of this series: an examination of key stats from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) comparing Montgomery County to its largest neighbors. Part Two looked at population. Now let’s look at gross domestic product (GDP).
BEA defines GDP this way:
Gross domestic product (GDP) measures the value of final goods and services produced within the United States. Also known as value added, GDP is the value of goods and services produced by private industry and government, less the value of goods and services used up in production. GDP is also equal to the sum of personal consumption expenditures, gross private domestic investment, net exports of goods and services, and government consumption expenditures and gross investment.
BEA adds this definition for GDP at the state level: “A measurement of a state’s output; it is the sum of value added from all industries in the state. GDP by state is the state counterpart to the Nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).”
The chart below shows real GDP growth (adjusted for inflation) for the large jurisdictions in the region in the most recent year measured.
2022 was a decent year for MoCo’s GDP. It trailed the region average but led half of its major competitors.
Now let’s look at the five-year change.
MoCo’s real GDP barely grew at all during this period. Yes, two years of this period were afflicted by COVID. But all the other big jurisdictions except Alexandria grew while we stagnated.
This chart shows the ten-year change.
Once again, we are next to last and lead only Alexandria. Our economy grew at half the rate of the region.
The chart below shows MoCo’s percentage of the region’s GDP since 2001. From 2001 through 2017, MoCo accounted for between 17% and 18% of the region’s GDP, which is about the same as its percentage of the region’s population. However, starting in 2017, its percentage began to slide steadily.
This cannot be blamed on the pandemic. The whole region suffered from the pandemic and the relative slide started before the pandemic began. Something deeper is going on here, and it’s specific to Montgomery County.
Next: we will look at per capita GDP.