Alabama vs Florida: two economies side by side

Alabama and Florida share a border. Here are the two economies on the same measures, with the rank of each among 51 states and DC.

SoutheastAlabama leads on 3, Florida on 8 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · AL	B · FL	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$339.0B	$1.81T	27 · 4
Real GDP growth, 2025	+2.0%	+2.8%	25 · 11
Real growth a year since 2015	+2.2%	+3.8%	22 · 5
GDP per person	$65,286	$76,958	48 · 37
Income per person, 2025	$59,754	$78,345	49 · 16
Real income per person (2017 $)	$52,216	$57,131	48 · 30
Price level (US = 100)	88.8	103.4	45 · 11
Housing costs (US = 100)	61.8	122.1	48 · 9
Unemployment, September 2026	3.5%	4.4%	18 · 37
Population	5,193,088	23,462,518	24 · 3
Population growth a year since 2020	+0.63%	+1.7%	20 · 2

Highlighted: the higher value, or the lower one for prices and unemployment. BEA (GDP, income, price parities), BLS (unemployment).

Fig. 1Real GDP, index 2015 = 100Chained 2017 dollars

AlabamaFlorida

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

AlabamaFlorida

Industry mix, 2025

Share of each state’s GDP. Sorted by the gap between the two.

Industry	AL	FL	Gap, pp	Larger in
Manufacturing	14.6%	4.8%	9.8	AL
Real estate	12.2%	20.7%	8.5	FL
Government	15.5%	8.3%	7.2	AL
Professional services	6.6%	8.1%	1.5	FL
Information	2.2%	3.7%	1.5	FL
Accommodation & food	3.0%	4.4%	1.4	FL
Administrative & waste services	2.6%	3.9%	1.3	FL
Utilities	2.9%	1.8%	1.1	AL
Arts & recreation	0.4%	1.5%	1.1	FL
Health care	7.0%	8.1%	1.1	FL
Transportation & warehousing	2.6%	3.6%	1.0	FL
Mining, oil & gas	0.9%	0.1%	0.8	AL
Management of companies	0.9%	1.6%	0.7	FL
Construction	4.8%	5.5%	0.7	FL
Agriculture	1.0%	0.5%	0.5	AL
Education	0.5%	0.9%	0.4	FL
Wholesale trade	6.4%	6.8%	0.4	FL
Retail trade	7.0%	7.3%	0.3	FL
Finance & insurance	6.6%	6.5%	0.1	AL
Other services	2.4%	2.3%	0.1	AL