Dallas-Fort Worth was the third-fastest growing economy among the top 10 US Metro Areas last year, according to data on 2016 Metropolitan GDP released last week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
In 2015 the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area generated a gross GDP dollar value of $457.4 billion. In 2016, the metro’s total economic output rose to $471.2 billion, an increase of 3%. Dallas is the 4th largest MSA economy in the country. Of the other top 10 metro economies only San Francisco, the 7th largest MSA economy with a GDP of $406 billion, and Atlanta, the 10th largest MSA economy with a GDP of $320 billion, grew faster than Dallas, with growth rates of 5.4% and 3.7%, respectively.
In 2015 Dallas was actually the fastest-growing of the top 10 MSAs, with a growth rate of 5.8%. The city has consistently seen some of the highest growth rates among large GDPs since 2011.
That growth might make Dallas the biggest metro economy in Texas as well, but it isn’t the state’s fastest growing economy. The Austin metro GDP (26th largest) grew 4.9 percent from 2015 to 2016, and San Antonio (34th largest) grew by 3.1 percent during that time. Houston actually saw its GDP shrink by 3 percent.
Dallas’ five-year growth streak has allowed it to move up from the 6th largest metro economy in 2011 to the fourth largest today. The DFW economy leapt past both Washington, D.C. and Houston, which had been the 5th and 4th largest metro economies, in 2015.
The BEA data indicates that the finance, insurance, and real estate sector contributed the most to Dallas’ growth in 2016, accounting for .76% of all GDP growth. Trade, information technology, and construction also made major contributions to Dallas’ growth rate. The natural resources and mining sector and durable good manufacturing sector were both down versus 2015.
Here are the complete 2016 GDP rankings for the top 100 US Metro Areas:
