Once again, for no reason other than that it's really popular (and that we actually received an e-mail requesting an update), we've thrown the nations of the European Union into an economic cage match against the individual United States to find out where they all rank with respect to each other!

In our version of an economic cage match, the only deciding factor is how each nation ranks with respect to each others Gross Domestic Product (GDP) adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), population and their GDP-PPP per Capita. What makes this version different from last year's smackdown is that we've updated it all, using data exclusively from 2007.

We've put this data into the dynamic table you see below, which will allow you to sort the data in the table by clicking on the various column headings. Doing so will almost instantaneously sort the data in the table from low to high value or from high to low (by clicking a column heading a second time.) To restore the original order, you'll need to refresh this page in your web browser.

We'll have some more commentary below the table - in the meantime, you know you can't resist....

2006 GDP-PPP Rankings of EU Nations vs Individual US States

US State or EU Nation	2007 GDP-PPP [billions USD]	2007 Population	2007 GDP-PPP per Capita [USD]
United States - All	13,743.02	301,621,157	45,563.85
US - Alabama	165.80	4,627,851	35,825.70
US - Alaska	44.52	683,478	65,133.04
US - Arizona	247.03	6,338,755	38,971.06
US - Arkansas	95.37	2,834,797	33,642.97
US - California	1,812.97	36,553,215	49,598.04
US - Colorado	236.32	4,861,515	48,611.18
US - Connecticut	216.27	3,502,309	61,749.55
US - Delaware	60.12	864,764	69,519.55
US - District of Columbia	93.82	588,282	159,479.64
US - Florida	734.52	18,251,243	40,244.88
US - Georgia	396.50	9,544,750	41,541.58
US - Hawaii	61.53	1,283,388	47,944.97
US - Idaho	51.15	1,499,402	34,112.93
US - Illinois	609.57	12,852,548	47,427.95
US - Indiana	246.44	6,345,289	38,838.10
US - Iowa	129.03	2,988,046	43,180.73
US - Kansas	117.31	2,775,997	42,256.89
US - Kentucky	154.18	4,241,474	36,351.51
US - Louisiana	216.15	4,293,204	50,346.08
US - Maine	48.11	1,317,207	36,522.73
US - Maryland	268.69	5,618,344	47,822.81
US - Massachusetts	351.51	6,449,755	54,500.36
US - Michigan	381.96	10,071,822	37,923.92
US - Minnesota	254.97	5,197,621	49,055.14
US - Mississippi	88.55	2,918,785	30,336.60
US - Missouri	229.47	5,878,415	39,036.03
US - Montana	34.25	957,861	35,759.89
US - Nebraska	80.09	1,774,571	45,133.73
US - Nevada	127.21	2,565,382	49,588.33
US - New Hampshire	57.34	1,315,828	43,577.88
US - New Jersey	465.48	8,685,920	53,590.64
US - New Mexico	76.18	1,969,915	38,670.70
US - New York	1,103.02	19,297,729	57,158.23
US - North Carolina	399.45	9,061,032	44,083.94
US - North Dakota	27.73	639,715	43,339.61
US - Ohio	466.31	11,466,917	40,665.59
US - Oklahoma	139.32	3,617,316	38,515.57
US - Oregon	158.23	3,747,455	42,224.12
US - Pennsylvania	531.11	12,432,792	42,718.48
US - Rhode Island	46.90	1,057,832	44,335.96
US - South Carolina	152.83	4,407,709	34,673.34
US - South Dakota	33.93	796,214	42,619.20
US - Tennessee	243.87	6,156,719	39,610.22
US - Texas	1,141.97	23,904,380	47,772.21
US - Utah	105.57	2,645,330	39,907.31
US - Vermont	24.54	621,254	39,505.58
US - Virginia	382.96	7,712,091	49,657.61
US - Washington	311.27	6,468,424	48,121.46
US - West Virginia	57.71	1,812,035	31,848.72
US - Wisconsin	232.29	5,601,640	41,468.75
US - Wyoming	31.51	522,830	60,275.81
European Union - All	14,430.00	490,426,060	29,423.40
EU - Austria	322.00	8,199,783	39,269.33
EU - Belgium	376.50	10,392,226	36,229.00
EU - Bulgaria (*)	86.71	7,322,858	11,841.01
EU - Cyprus	21.40	788,457	27,141.62
EU - Czech Republic (*)	251.00	10,228,744	24,538.69
EU - Denmark	203.30	5,468,120	37,179.14
EU - Estonia (*)	28.69	1,315,912	21,802.37
EU - Finland	188.40	5,238,460	35,964.77
EU - France	2,075.00	63,718,187	32,565.27
EU - Germany	2,807.00	82,400,996	34,065.12
EU - Greece	327.60	10,706,290	30,598.83
EU - Hungary	191.70	9,956,108	19,254.51
EU - Ireland	191.60	4,109,086	46,628.37
EU - Italy	1,800.00	58,147,733	30,955.64
EU - Latvia (*)	40.05	2,259,810	17,722.73
EU - Lithuania (*)	59.98	3,575,439	16,775.56
EU - Luxembourg	38.14	480,222	79,421.60
EU - Malta	9.40	401,880	23,390.07
EU - Netherlands	645.50	16,570,613	38,954.50
EU - Poland	623.10	38,518,241	16,176.75
EU - Portugal	232.30	10,642,836	21,826.89
EU - Romania (*)	247.10	22,276,056	11,092.63
EU - Slovakia	110.20	5,447,502	20,229.46
EU - Slovenia	56.19	2,009,245	27,965.73
EU - Spain	1,361.00	40,448,191	33,647.98
EU - Sweden	338.50	9,031,088	37,481.64
EU - United Kingdom	2,130.00	60,776,238	35,046.59

Sources and Acknowledgements:

• 2007 US State GDP Data: Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce, All Industry Total
  
• 2007 US State Population Estimates (July 1, 2007): US Census [Excel spreadsheet]
  
• 2007 EU Nation GDP-PPP Data: The World Factbook, 2008
  
• 2007 EU Nation Population Estimates (July 1, 2007): The World Factbook, 2008
  
• Dynamic Table Sorting Function: The Daily Kryogenix.

The GDP and population data for the United States as a whole, as well as for the European Union as a whole, was obtained by adding up the state and national values we found for each. GDP-PPP per capita was found by dividing each region's 2007 GDP figure by its population estimate as of July 1, 2007.

We will note that the CIA's estimate of GDP-PPP for some European nations for 2007 is really different from what they indicated for 2006. For instance, nations such as Greece, the Netherlands and Spain would have effectively seen their GDP-PPP per Capita grow by more than 20%, even though the CIA also indicates that economic growth in these nations has been growing at comparatively moderate rates.

We wondered if that might be an effect of the relative valuations of the U.S. dollar with respect to the Euro, but we would then expect nations like France and Germany to also have similarly high levels of year-over-year GDP-PPP per Capita growth, but that's just not the case - their year over year growth is in the single digits.

So, we just might have a mystery! We don't know why the 2007 GDP-PPP for these nations is so different from what it was in 2006.

A Cage Match Contest

Since this kind of ranking invariably draws commentary from other quarters of the blogosphere, we thought it might be fun to try an experiment - why not have an open contest for the blog that can best explain why the data is the way that it is?

For our part, we'll be happy to link to, and possibly excerpt analysis from, the blogs that drive the most traffic to this post (in other words, you don't need to e-mail us to enter - you just need to link to us from your post that proposes a solution to this mystery!) We'll reserve a place of honor for the blogger who offers the most compelling analysis.

If it helps make that analysis easier, we've shaded the original EU-15 nations in light purple, while the twelve additional nations that have joined the EU in more recent years are shaded in light green.

What's more, we've also identified the nations in the EU with flat income taxes with asterisks (*). Those nations averaged 12.2% year over year growth in their GDP-PPP per capita.

And that's where we'll leave the rest to you! We'll look forward to what you come up with!

Previously on Political Calculations

2006 Economic and Population Data

• 2006 GDP-PPP EU vs US Smackdown!
  
• Africa GDP Rankings for 2006
  
• Asia GDP Rankings for 2006
  
• 2006 GDP Rankings for the Americas
  
• 2006 GDP Rankings for Europe

2004 Economic and Population Data

• Pacific Rim: 2004 GDP Rankings
  
• GDP Rankings in Muslim Nations
  
• 2004 GDP Rankings for Asia
  
• European Union 2004 GDP Rankings
  
• GDP in Africa: 2004
  
• GDP Rankings of the Americas: 2004 Edition
  
• EU vs US: Two Years of Economic Data Later....

2002 Economic and Population Data

• EU vs USA
  
• Cool Tools and GSP
  
• GDP of the Americas
  
• GDP in the Muslim World
  
• GDP in Europe
  
• GDP: Africa
  
• GDP Along the Pacific Rim
  
• GDP in Asia
  
• GDP: And the rest...

Labels: gdp

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