Here's How We Ranked The States' Economies

Reuters/Eduardo MunozBalloons fly during the 32nd annual QuickChek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning in Readington, New Jersey July 25, 2014

For our ranking of the economies of all 50 states, we wanted to capture recent economic movement in a number of areas, like employment, consumption, housing, and overall growth. To do that, we chose eight indicators, ranked each state on those indicators from best to worst, and then averaged each state's rankings to get a final composite index.

Here are the metrics we used:

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP), growth in 2013: This represents the sum total output of all of the industries and government agencies in a state. The GDP growth rate is considered one of the most important economic figures for a state or country, and the figures are published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. GDP growth rates ranged from -2.5% in Alaska to 9.7% in North Dakota.
• Working Age Population, percent change from 2012 to 2013: This is how quickly the population of 18-64 year olds was growing or shrinking in each state, and estimates are published annually by the Census Bureau. Population changes ranged from -0.7% in West Virginia to 3.2% in North Dakota.
• Unemployment Rate, change from June 2013 to June 2014: This is the year over year difference in the official unemployment rates, published at the state level by the Bureau of Labor Statistics each month a few weeks after the national rate. Unemployment rate changes ranged from a drop of 2.5% in South Carolina to a rise of 0.3% in Alabama.
• Non-Farm Payroll Jobs, percent change from June 2013 to June 2014: This is usually cited as the main jobs number when it's released monthly at the national level. The Bureau of Labor Statistics gives state NFPs in the same monthly report as the state unemployment rates. The NFP changes ranged from -0.7 in Alaska to 4.8% in North Dakota.
• International Exports, percent change from 2012 to 2013: The Census Bureau keeps track of the total value of exports from each state, and of the most valuable exports from each state. Export changes ranged from -25.4% in West Virginia to 18.2% in New Hampshire.
• Average Annual Wages, percent change from 2012 to 2013: We used the Bureau of Labor Analysis' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages to get average wage data for each state. Wage changes ranged from -2.5% in North Dakota to 1.4% in Maryland.
• Housing Prices, percent change from Q1 2013 to Q1 2014: The Federal Housing Finance Agency publishes a quarterly House Price Index for each state, used to track changes in house prices. Changes in house prices ranged from -2.7% in Vermont to 19.7% in Nevada.
• Auto Sales, percent change from 2012 to 2013: The National Automobile Dealers Association annually publishes reports on the state of the auto dealer industry. One of their metrics shows per-dealer sales volume, and we used increases and decreases in this measure as our final indicator. These changes ranged from -3.3% in Virginia to 18.8% in Arizona.