Alabama vs Georgia: two economies side by side

Alabama and Georgia 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 2, Georgia on 9 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · AL	B · GA	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$339.0B	$936.1B	27 · 8
Real GDP growth, 2025	+2.0%	+2.9%	25 · 8
Real growth a year since 2015	+2.2%	+2.9%	22 · 12
GDP per person	$65,286	$82,819	48 · 25
Income per person, 2025	$59,754	$65,111	49 · 42
Real income per person (2017 $)	$52,216	$52,952	48 · 42
Price level (US = 100)	88.8	96.3	45 · 27
Housing costs (US = 100)	61.8	88.7	48 · 25
Unemployment, September 2026	3.5%	3.3%	18 · 11
Population	5,193,088	11,302,748	24 · 8
Population growth a year since 2020	+0.63%	+1.0%	20 · 11

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

AlabamaGeorgia

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

AlabamaGeorgia

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	AL	GA	Gap, pp	Larger in
Government	15.5%	9.8%	5.7	AL
Manufacturing	14.6%	9.4%	5.2	AL
Information	2.2%	6.0%	3.9	GA
Finance & insurance	6.6%	9.8%	3.2	GA
Real estate	12.2%	14.1%	1.9	GA
Wholesale trade	6.4%	8.3%	1.9	GA
Transportation & warehousing	2.6%	4.0%	1.4	GA
Utilities	2.9%	1.7%	1.2	AL
Retail trade	7.0%	5.8%	1.2	AL
Management of companies	0.9%	1.9%	1.0	GA
Mining, oil & gas	0.9%	0.2%	0.7	AL
Other services	2.4%	1.7%	0.7	AL
Education	0.5%	1.1%	0.6	GA
Professional services	6.6%	7.2%	0.6	GA
Administrative & waste services	2.6%	3.1%	0.6	GA
Agriculture	1.0%	0.5%	0.5	AL
Arts & recreation	0.4%	0.7%	0.3	GA
Construction	4.8%	5.1%	0.3	GA
Accommodation & food	3.0%	2.8%	0.2	AL
Health care	7.0%	6.9%	0.1	AL