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California Retains Title As World’s 5th Largest Economy

Nominal GDP of California nears $3.9 trillion

California, Los Angeles Flags flying outside of Los Angeles City Hall (Photo: Evan Symon for the California Globe)

According to a new report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this week, California remains the world’s 5th largest economy, leading sixth place India and falling under fourth-place Japan.

The 2024 World Economic Growth Projects Report found that the United States, in terms of Nominal GDP, was at $27.36 trillion in 2023, up from $25.7 trillion in 2022. The next closest economy, China, stood at only $17.66 trillion in 2023, followed by Germany with $4.4 trillion and Japan with $4.2 trillion.

When broken down by individual states, California still had by far the largest individual economy. Coming in 5th place once again, California had a $3.86 trillion economy in 2023, up from $3.64 trillion in 2022. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the state had an overall 6.1% growth rate. The next highest state, Texas, had a $2.56 trillion economy in 2023, coming at a slower growth rate than California as they had been at $2.4 trillion in 2022. The third highest state was New York, with $2.15 trillion in 2023.

2024 IMF Chart (Photo: gov.ca.gov)

While many factors played against California in recent years, such as recovery from the pandemic, many companies moving out of state,  state population losses, and massive tech job losses in the Bay Area, the state has shown to rebound economically in recent years. A high population mixed with many pandemic-resistant industries and many growth areas led the state to continue to grow.

“California continues to punch above its weight, overperforming all but a handful of the largest countries in the world,” said Governor Newsom of the report on Wednesday. “And with our unparalleled combination of innovation, higher education, a talented workforce, diverse industries, and unparalleled natural resources, we will continue to do so well into the future.”

While many experts agreed that those were factors contributing to California’s high marks, they noted that the number of overall opportunities were still strong despite Government overview.

“Businesses in California have felt squeezed for quite some time, especially with high taxation and more and more regulations,” explained economist Mia Malone to the Globe on Wednesday. “But it has proved resilient to that too. There are so many people here, so many different industries and pretty much a bit of everything. Businesses can still succeed and grow here. Is it harder? Yes, and some do leave. But look at all the tech firms in Silicon Valley, all the media companies in LA, all the large warehouse and freight companies in the Inland Empire. There’s new construction, agriculture, mining, tourism. This is why California succeeds even with all the drawbacks. There is just so much to build on.

“If the government reigned back a bit, the economy here would truly expand. I mean, they are fifth in the world right now. They have a bigger economy than India, and they have the most people in the world. That’s how productive California is. That is how much they contribute. California is $3.86 trillion of the U.S. $27.3 trillion economy. Very roughly, that’s 14%. That is how much of an advantage California is at. It’s really a lot.”

More studies on California’s economic situation are due out soon.

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Evan Symon: Evan V. Symon is the Senior Editor for the California Globe. Prior to the Globe, he reported for the Pasadena Independent, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and was head of the Personal Experiences section at Cracked. He can be reached at evan@californiaglobe.com.

View Comments (4)

  • How can California still have the world's 5th largest economy? Look around at all the empty storefronts, empty commercial buildings, and closed businesses around much of the state. The only industries that seem to be booming in California are the homeless industrial complex, the welfare industry, the abortion industry, the transsexual sex-change industry, and the illegal alien industry.

    Can we even trust any financial data from the globalists at the International Monetary Fund/United Nations? It's the lender of last resort to national governments and it destroys what's left of a country's wealth with usurious loans. If California's remains the fifth largest economy, then it's probably because other countries economies are doing much worse?

  • All hyperbole: The latest reported quarter of economic growth  indicates a national economic expansion of $384 billion dollars. That growth came at a cost of $894 billion dollars in additional federal debt.

    There is no true economy: all the touted numbers of economic health are nothing more than applied euphoria to keep you distracted until the end; 2005 everything changes.

    The interest on the federal debt now exceeds the defense budget.

  • imagine that California has a bigger economy than many countries that offer universal health care yet can't seem to do the same.

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