Buffalo ranked 19th on
Brookings Institution Metro Monitor 2011 for highest per capita metro GDP in the world. At the same time, Buffalo experienced the 4th highest income growth rate for any metro area relative to their home nation. Perhaps most impressively, Buffalo had the 2nd highest income growth rate of any metro area in the United States.
Buffalo has ranked well in
per capita GDP growth over the past few years and the Brookings report validates that trend. While Buffalo’s income levels have historically lagged other major metro areas, we are experiencing
per capita income growth as well which is helping close that gap. Only one American city had a higher income growth rate from 2010 to 2011 – Houston, Texas.
Global Metro Monitor: Volatility, Growth and Recovery 2011
Excerpts of findings include…
“Metro areas specializing in commodities and business and financial services within their countries exhibited the strongest performance. By contrast, metro areas with high concentrations of local/non-market services (education, health care, administrative services, government) or construction registered only sluggish growth last year. manufacturing accounted for the largest share of output growth in 59 metro areas from 2010 to 2011, including many in which it does not rank as the largest industry….
“Some metro areas significantly over-performed or under-performed their nations economically (table 3). On income growth, six US metro areas, including three manufacturing centers in the Great Lakes region (Buffalo, Detroit, and Rochester), ranked among the ten metro areas that outpaced their nations by the largest margins. Those metro areas that lagged their nations by the greatest degree on this measure included three in china (Beijing, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou) as well as three others in the pacific rim with important trading ties to that nation (Brisbane, Kuala lumpur, and perth). Employment growth differentials between metro areas and their nations were somewhat smaller at the extremes, though still sizable in a handful of Chinese metro areas that outperformed the national average (Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen), and in US metro areas that lost jobs even as the nation posted a modest gain (Atlanta, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Richmond, Sacramento).”
See index charts below:
Thanks to Grant Wigmore for passing along this information.
