The States Getting Richest Are Willing to Dig Deep

We live in a high-tech world. The top valued stocks are all tech. Experts keep telling us artificial intelligence and robotics is the future — get on board or you’ll never catch up!

Now for a little reality check: The largest fortunes are made by extracting the earth’s rich resources from deep underground. Oil, natural gas, coal, gold, silver, limestone, sand, gravel and (yes) critical minerals like aluminum, lithium and cobalt — they’re what continue to drive economies and spur growth as reliably as at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago.

Just consider the top 5 states where real gross domestic product (GDP) spiked in 2023 (real GDP is measured against the 2012 value of the dollar to provide a better year-over-year view of the economy that’s not as skewed by inflation):

1. North Dakota: 5.9% increase from 2022 to 2023
2. Texas: 5.7%
3. Wyoming: 5.4%
4. Alaska: 5.3%, and
5. Oklahoma: 5.3%.

U.S. Set All-Time Crude Oil Production Record in 2023

Texas’ “oil & gas industry generated about $72 million per day in local and state taxes in addition to state royalties,” notes Zero Hedge. “Roughly half of U.S. crude oil exports are shipped from Corpus Christi Bay, a port along the Texas coastline.”

The U.S. grew 2.5 in real GDP despite setting an all-time world record in crude oil production of 12.9 million barrels per day. To put that achievement in perspective, during President Obama’s second term the U.S. trailed both Russia and Saudi Arabia in oil production (for a fascinating timeline, check out Visual Capitalist).

Just missing the top five list of states last year was Florida. The Sunshine State grew by a respectable 5%, fueled largely by retail trade. “Retail trade, which increased in all 50 states and Washington DC, was the leading contributor to growth in 14 states,” according to the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

We’ve recently covered some other reasons that make cities and states more attractive to businesses and employees. They include lower taxes, less regulatory red tape and business-friendly government.