North Dakota's gross domestic product (GDP) grew to $26.4 billion in 2006, a 3.1 percent growth from 2005 in inflation-adjusted dollars.

This month’s “Economic Brief,” a monthly publication from the North Dakota State Data Center at North Dakota State University, focuses on state gross domestic product by industry sector. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, gross domestic product by state, considered the state counterpart of the nation’s GDP, is the value added in production by the labor and capital in a state.

When combined, California, Texas and New York captured approximately 30 percent of the total GDP in 2006. North Dakota, along with South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Vermont, each captured 0.2 percent.

In North Dakota, the government sector was 15.8 percent of the total GDP in 2006. Three industries each made up approximately 9 percent of the total GDP. Manufacturing was 9.5 percent of the total GDP; real estate, rental and leasing 9.3 percent; and health care and social assistance 8.5 percent.

“Our state’s economy has diversified greatly during the past 20 years,"" says Richard Rathge, State Data Center director. ""The best sign of that change is the shifting makeup of our GDP. With the expansion of the service sector, along with new and advanced technologies, former service-sector components, such as information, professional and technical services and health care and social assistance, are now viewed independently. This demonstrates the new economic era we are entering."

While each making up less than 4 percent of the overall GDP for North Dakota, three industries showed the fasted growth rates in GDP between 2005 and 2006 (10 percent or more in inflation-adjusted dollars). The industries include management of companies and enterprises (14.4 percent); professional and technical services (11 percent); and agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (10.8 percent).

NDSU Agriculture Communication