California vs Nevada: two economies side by side

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

Far WestCalifornia leads on 6, Nevada on 5 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · CA	B · NV	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$4.30T	$281.4B	1 · 30
Real GDP growth, 2025	+3.5%	+2.0%	3 · 23
Real growth a year since 2015	+3.0%	+3.4%	9 · 7
GDP per person	$109,196	$85,728	6 · 23
Income per person, 2025	$90,957	$73,767	6 · 24
Real income per person (2017 $)	$63,028	$56,503	13 · 32
Price level (US = 100)	110.7	100.0	1 · 18
Housing costs (US = 100)	154.3	114.1	2 · 13
Unemployment, September 2026	5.1%	4.7%	49 · 43
Population	39,355,309	3,282,188	1 · 31
Population growth a year since 2020	−0.09%	+1.0%	46 · 12

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

CaliforniaNevada

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

CaliforniaNevada

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	CA	NV	Gap, pp	Larger in
Accommodation & food	3.0%	12.2%	9.2	NV
Information	11.8%	3.5%	8.3	CA
Manufacturing	9.1%	4.4%	4.7	CA
Professional services	9.8%	5.4%	4.4	CA
Construction	3.6%	7.7%	4.2	NV
Mining, oil & gas	0.2%	2.3%	2.1	NV
Wholesale trade	6.1%	4.2%	1.9	CA
Arts & recreation	1.2%	2.9%	1.6	NV
Transportation & warehousing	2.9%	4.3%	1.4	NV
Finance & insurance	5.1%	6.5%	1.4	NV
Government	10.6%	9.4%	1.2	CA
Real estate	13.9%	15.1%	1.2	NV
Retail trade	5.4%	6.6%	1.2	NV
Health care	7.0%	5.9%	1.1	CA
Agriculture	1.2%	0.2%	1.0	CA
Management of companies	2.0%	2.9%	0.8	NV
Education	1.1%	0.6%	0.5	CA
Administrative & waste services	2.8%	3.2%	0.5	NV
Utilities	1.5%	1.2%	0.3	CA
Other services	1.8%	1.6%	0.2	CA