Updated chart with 2008 data, click to enlarge.

Data Sources: GDP by state (

BEA

), state population (

Census

), European GDP-PPP per capita (

World Bank via Wikipedia

).

Click to enlarge.



Paul Krugman extols "Europe’s economic success" in a recent NY Times column "Learning from Europe," and writes that "...taking the longer view, the European economy works; it grows; it’s as dynamic, all in all, as our own."



Greg Mankiw adds this caveat about Europe's "economic success."



The chart above provides some additional perspective on Europe's "economic success," based on data available here that compares 2007 GDP per person on a purchasing power parity basis for U.S. states and European countries, and shows that if various European countries became part of the United States:



1. Portugal would rank #51 as a U.S. state, below Mississippi in per capita GDP.



2. Italy and Greece as U.S. states would rank between the two poorest U.S. states - West Virginia and Mississippi.



3. If France became a U.S. state it would rank #48 out of 51 by per capita GDP, just barely ahead of America's two poorest states - West Virginia and Mississippi.



4. Belgium, Finland, U.K. Germany and Spain would rank in the bottom 20% of U.S. states by per capita GDP, just barely ahead of Arkansas but below Kentucky.



5. Although Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark are among Europe's wealthiest countries, as U.S. states they would be between 14.5% and 18% below the U.S. average.



HT: Lee Coppock