Federal Reserve Economic Data

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The impact of COVID-19 on U.S. states’ economic activity

State-level GDP data show the second quarter was much worse than the first

GDP comes in various forms—for the nation as a whole and also for individual U.S. states. The map above shows the change in real GDP in each U.S. state for the first quarter of 2020. This was at the start of the pandemic, and some states were hit hard.

The worst declines were in Louisiana (-11.91%), Delaware (-11.43%), Wyoming (-10.53%), Hawaii (-8.92%), Wisconsin (-8.76%), South Carolina (-8.24%), and Michigan (-7.94%). The hope at the time was that this slump would be temporary. We now have the data for the second quarter:

While the colors of the map are similar, the actual values in the second quarter are much worse. To put this in perspective, consider that the decline in the worst state in the first-quarter map (-11.91% in Louisiana) was nowhere near the decline in the best state in the second-quarter map (-21.91% in Delaware). The numbers are astounding, with Hawaii, Nevada, and Tennessee losing over 40% of their economic activity.

To see more details and find your home state, click the link below each map in this post to reach the interactive maps on GeoFRED.

How these maps were created: The original post referenced interactive maps from our now discontinued GeoFRED site. The revised post provides replacement maps from FRED’s new mapping tool. To create FRED maps, go to the data series page in question and look for the green “VIEW MAP” button at the top right of the graph. See this post for instructions to edit a FRED map. Only series with a green map button can be mapped.

Suggested by Christian Zimmermann.



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