Florida’s Economy Shows High Growth, Dips One Spot to 16th Largest Global Economy
By: Keith Richard, Ph.D., Vice President of Research, Florida Chamber Foundation
Newly released data reflected on TheFloridaScorecard.org for 2023 shows that if Florida were an independent country, it would be ranked the 16th largest economy in the world by gross domestic product (GDP). This represents a change from Florida’s previous GDP ranking as the 15th largest economy in the world. While on the surface this may seem concerning, Florida’s latest annual GDP stands at $1.58 trillion, which is actually an increase of over $140.4 billion.
Florida slipped one place in GDP ranking due to a slight growth in Spain’s economy, previously ranked 16th, over the past year, outpacing Florida by approximately $22.5 billion. Despite this change, Florida’s economy remains nearly equal to Spain’s, being just 0.1 percent smaller.
More evidence of Florida’s vibrant economy comes in the form of a steady stream of income moving into Florida in recent years from other US states. More specifically, Florida saw the highest annual net income migration, gaining $4.12 million per hour – 3.5 times the income migration of the second highest, Texas. As our research team dove deeper into the analysis, we found that the average return for those moving into Florida was $155,600, while the average return for those leaving Florida was $96,000. People are flocking to Florida and bringing their income with them. Florida’s growth is strong in many other areas as well. In fact, with 23 million residents, over 10 million people working and approximately over 140 million annual visitors, Florida will likely add 2.8 million more residents and need to create almost 1.4 million new jobs by 2030 – all of which will help fuel our continued GDP growth.
In terms of what’s to come, Florida may be on track to surpass the GDP of Australia and South Korea, currently ranked 13th and 14th, respectively, within the next couple of years. Over the past year, Florida’s annual GDP growth was more than three times that of South Korea and more than four times that of Australia. Florida’s battle to surpass Spain will continue to unfold, as the two economies are currently nearly identical in size. However, while Florida’s economy consistently grows year after year, Spain’s economy has experienced fluctuations, decreasing as often as it has increased in recent years. To give some context for those of you who talk about this with your community, customers and management teams, Florida’s GDP is larger than Indonesia, the Netherlands and Turkey.
For questions about this analysis and/or to learn about how you can get involved in the Florida Chamber Foundation’s efforts to grow Florida to a top 10 global economy by 2030, feel free to contact me directly at krichard@flchamber.com.
Also, be sure to register HERE for our 2024 Future of Florida Forum (F3) & Florida Chamber Annual Meeting, October 21-22 in Orlando, where we will unite Florida leaders for good to discuss matters impacting Florida’s growth trajectory to 2030 and beyond.