San Francisco was the fastest growing economy among the top 10 US Metro Areas last year, according to data released on 2016 Metropolitan GDP released last week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
In 2015 the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area generated a gross GDP dollar value of $385.6 billion. In 2016, the metro’s total economic output rose to $406.2 billion, an increase of 5.4%. San Francisco is the 7th largest MSA economy in the country. Of the other top 10 metro economies only Atlanta came close to San Francisco’s growth, with a rate of 3.7%. Houston, the 6th largest metro economy, saw a 3% decline in economic output, while the 5th largest economy, Washington, DC, grew by only 1.1%.
When the list is expanded to include the top 100 US Metros San Francisco comes in third place for growth. Only Provo, UT and San Jose saw higher economic growth in that span a time, with rates of 6.1% and 5.9%, respectively. Both Provo and San Jose, however, are substantially smaller economies than San Francisco. With a 2016 GDP of $236 billion, San Jose’s economy is the 13th largest and only 58% the size of San Francisco. Provo, the 95th largest MSA economy, has a GDP of $20 billion, a twentieth the size of San Francisco’s.
According to the BEA’s data, the finance, insurance, real estate sector contributed most to San Francisco’s GDP growth, boosting the area economy by 1.56%. Unsurprisingly, the information technology sector contributed nearly a full point to GDP growth, while transportation and business services also saw strong growth.
Here are the complete 2016 GDP rankings for the top 100 US Metro Areas:
