San Jose Area Has World’s Third-Highest GDP Per Capita, Brookings Says

January 23, 2015

San Jose ranks third in the world in per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) after Zurich, Switzerland and Oslo, Norway, according to a new study out from the Brookings Institute on Thursday.

San Jose’s metro region GDP was $77,440 in 2014. The San Francisco-Oakland area ranked 12th at $66,790.

The study defined per-capita GDP as the “size of an economy relative to population. It is not personal income or household income, and does not reflect the distribution of income, but proxies the average standard of living in an area.”

The report also noted that San Jose metro (the region that encompasses Santa Clara County) is one of the 32 (out of a total 80) U.S. metros to have fully recovered from the recession. The San Francisco-Oakland metro has only partially recovered, according to the report.

“Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities and metro areas and, together, the world’s 300 largest metropolitan economies accounted for nearly half of all global output in 2014,” wrote the authors of the report. “The 300 largest metropolitan economies housed 20 percent of both the world’s population and its employment, but accounted for 47 percent of output and 38 percent of output growth.

Austin, Houston and Raleigh topped the list of fastest growing metro areas in the U.S. in 2014, due to their focus on energy and technology. Those cities have an average unemployment rate of 4.3 percent, well below the national average of 5.6 percent.

China dominated the list of cities with the fastest growing economies, but only Macau (11th) ranked on the list of the top 20 cities in the world in per-capita GDP. Macau, the Chinese territory known for casino gambling, outperformed the rest of the world’s major cities to be ranked the fastest growing economy of 2014.