Cool Map
I am having trouble tracing this map all the way to its source, but I thought it was cool enough to show here (via TJIC and Carls Blog). The map renames each state with a country that has approximately the same GDP as that state.
Check out Russia / New Jersey. And is it really saying New Zealand and the District of Columbia have the same GDP?
Update: If you enjoyed this post, check out our (free) comprehensive
guide to the skeptics arguments concerning man-made global warming.
Brandon Berg:
If you count the effects of legislative activities, wouldn't D.C. have a negative GDP?
January 18, 2007, 10:57 ammostly cajun:
Stole the map.
Added you to the blogroll!
Thanks
January 18, 2007, 11:36 amMostly Cajun
Offa Rex:
I expect that D.C. and New Zealand do have similar GDPs. For example, think about the dollar value of only the legal services performed in D.C. every year. You will often see these bizarre seeming distortions when you have a political entity with a very small geographic area but a highly developed, high dollar service industry. Luxemburg looks equally anomalous when compared to the rest of Europe because it is a banking center.
January 18, 2007, 11:54 amKeith Casey:
And yet people complain that we set the agenda for many technologies, software, entertainment, sports, etc...
January 18, 2007, 12:31 pmmith:
It's not too difficult to compare these with data gathered by NationMaster and StateMaster (to see how the values add up. It's possible the numbers used to create this were more current, but to answer the question from the original post, New Zealand's Nominal GDP is $99,687,000,000. DC's GSP is $75,264,000,000. It looks like perhaps Nevada is a little closer, with a GSP of $99,372,000,000.
And for Norway ($250,168,000,000), Minnesota is a little low ($225,625,000,000). A closer estimate would be Washington state ($259,768,000,000).
That's just a quick look at the numbers, without any real validation outside of those two sites. The numbers on either one may be out of date or completely wrong. For example, the wikipedia entry on Norway lists the country's (estimated 2005) nominal GDP at $296 billion.
It's also possible they did something more complex with ratios, i.e. a nation's GDP as a percentage of the WDP compared to a state's GSP as a percentage of the US's GDP.
Links:
January 18, 2007, 3:07 pmNationMaster
StateMaster
Brad:
Oh Yes,but New Zealand has a much better Cricket team than Washington DC. Fewer lawyers and reporters is sure to be an advantage too.
January 18, 2007, 4:19 pmXmas:
Okay, I may have to look this up, but what the HELL is going on in Tennessee?
Saudi Arabia must have a gigantic GDP.
January 19, 2007, 6:28 amEl Jefe:
Brad, please do remember that the PM of New Zealand wants to declare a monarchy...oh, wait, so does our Speaker of the House.
January 20, 2007, 12:41 pmAnonymous:
I think it's worth noting that Hong Kong gets the entire state of Maryland. Not too shabby.
January 20, 2007, 7:24 pmCgard:
And Hawaii equal to all of Nigeria!
Hawaii's 2006 Population: 1.2 million
Nigeria's 2006 Population: 140 million
So every Hawaiian is as productive as 117 Nigerians? When they are all surfing and lounging on beaches all day long?
January 22, 2007, 7:15 amSam:
Tennessee? HQ for FedEX, International Paper, and Autozone in Memphis alone. HCA, Dollar General, and Nissan North America headquartered in Nashville. Scripps Networks (HGTV, Food Network) and Sea Ray headquartered in Knoxville.
Huge cotton industry, in terms of both the agriculture and commodity sides (Allenburg and Dunavant among the largest cotton traders in the world). Recording industry for the entire Country Music industry centered in Nashville.
One of the largest collection of railyards in the US is located in Memphis along with the world's largest air cargo airport (yes, bigger than Hong Kong, LAX, Anchorage, JFK,...). TVA. Saturn automobile plant.
Whoda thunk it?
January 23, 2007, 10:54 pmaverage_guy:
I can see California being equivalent to France in more ways than just GDP, but Oregon and Israel? The same in GDP ONLY!!!
January 24, 2007, 10:04 pmBBen:
What about washington? We have Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks, Weyerhauser, Amazon, etc...What does turkey have that is so profitable?
January 25, 2007, 1:52 pmdrivewaystyle:
Hashish
January 25, 2007, 6:43 pmzak:
Why does New York get to be Brazil when New Jersey gets to be Russia. Surely New York has a higher GDP than Jersey!?! Or does Brazil have a higher GDP than Russia?
January 26, 2007, 6:17 pmcarol:
I can see Nevada and Ireland's comparing...both places full of crazy drunks who really don't have anything better to do..I can say this with a clear conshence because I am Irish and also live in Nevada...go figure.
January 28, 2007, 2:43 pmJohn:
Re: posted by: carol | Jan 28, 2007 2:43:10 PM:
"I can see Nevada and Ireland's comparing...both places full of crazy drunks who really don't have anything better to do..I can say this with a clear conshence because I am Irish and also live in Nevada...go figure."
Sorry, Carol -- I could not disagree more. Been to Ireland lately? Do your Irish ancestry a favor and lose the stereotyping. Next thing you know, you'll be doing posts on Blacks and watermelons...!
January 28, 2007, 10:13 pmerin:
I'm a bit surprised with South Carolina/Singapore. I thought Singapore was one of the richer countries of the world for per person.
January 29, 2007, 9:30 amPinkZiab:
Actually, drivewaystyle, the GDP of New Jersey is slightly more than double that of New York.
January 30, 2007, 6:20 amPreston:
I doubt new zealand has a a GDP as low as DC's unless they don't include oil in the figure. New Zealand has massive oil reserves and production. It is one of, if not the, richest country in the world per capita.
January 30, 2007, 8:51 amPreston:
My bad! Norway is the richest country b/c of oil, not new zealand. Sorry.
January 30, 2007, 9:22 amSameer:
DC's high GDP I suspect is one of the "flaws" in GDP calculation as GDP calculations still count deadweight-loss rent-seeking activity, whereas the expenditures related to that are not really production in any sense of the word, as they extract value from the economy rather than add value. But the GDP calcuation doesn't that that into account.
February 2, 2007, 12:27 pmRollo Jenkinss:
You're all fucking homo's
February 3, 2007, 9:57 aminga:
what is GDP?
February 4, 2007, 12:04 amAaron:
What's the point? That the US is rich? Originally, a state was a country ("Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"). "States united by a weak central government"--rings a bell? It was kind of a new idea back in the day.
I think the fact that Tunisia has roughly 11.3 times the number of people in Montana with the same GDP is actually what's meaningful. The geographical representation part of this is completely unimportant. Tunisia is less than half the size of Montana. If their GDP is the same, then people are an average of 11.3 times as wealthy in Montana as in Tunisia. That's what's important.
The map is just a way of getting someone's attention. It's pretty much meaningless.
February 5, 2007, 5:25 pmDorian:
Romania is about 2 times BIGGER than Hungary...well,in real life,not on this map. :( Good ideea,serious mistake.
February 8, 2007, 3:24 pmAflac:
GDP, as in gross domestic product, as in total market value of final goods produced in a country. This map has nothing to do with size, Dorain. Clearly Canada is not the same size as Texas.
October 19, 2012, 3:50 pm