Behind the new Oklahoma GDP figures
The federal Bureau of Economic Analysis released its preliminary report on gross domestic product for the states today, and it was good news for Oklahoma.
The state took the top spot in GDP growth in 2009, growing at a torrid 6.6 percent clip from the previous year. That compared to a national decline of 2.1 percent. From the BEA:
In contrast to the nation and most states, several states experienced positive real GDP growth in 2009 due to real growth in agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting and in mining resulting from sharp declines in prices for petroleum, natural gas, and other mining products in 2009.
Oklahoma had the fastest growth in real GDP in 2009 (6.6 percent). The largest contributor to growth in Oklahoma was mining. Mining was also the leading contributor to growth in Wyoming and Louisiana. Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting was the leading contributor to growth in North Dakota and Nebraska, and was the second largest contributor to growth in South Dakota.
Here’s how the latest GDP figures break down by state (click image for a larger view):
Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis
Behind the numbers, we can see that mining (most of which is energy production), accounted for the bulk of the growth in Oklahoma last year. Its growth of 7.23 percentage points from 2008 masked declines in several other sectors, including durable goods manufacturing (down 0.73 percentage points) and real estate rental and leasing (down 0.57 percentage points).
More telling is how much the mining sector (a.k.a. energy) now accounts for in Oklahoma’s economy. As you can see from the following chart, mining almost tripled its share from 4.72 percent in 1997 to 13.81 percent in 2009. Government — at the federal, state and local levels — remained fairly steady at 17 percent of the state’s economy. Manufacturing still claims a large share, although that fell to 11.3 percent in 2009, down from 14.3 percent in 1997.
Click image for a larger view.
Source: Calculations from Bureau of Economic Analysis data
–Paul
Written by Paul Monies
Follow @pmonies
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