California vs Oregon: two economies side by side

California and Oregon 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 7, Oregon on 4 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · CA	B · OR	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$4.30T	$343.2B	1 · 25
Real GDP growth, 2025	+3.5%	+1.4%	3 · 38
Real growth a year since 2015	+3.0%	+2.6%	9 · 16
GDP per person	$109,196	$80,317	6 · 28
Income per person, 2025	$90,957	$73,283	6 · 25
Real income per person (2017 $)	$63,028	$55,451	13 · 37
Price level (US = 100)	110.7	103.4	1 · 12
Housing costs (US = 100)	154.3	108.6	2 · 14
Unemployment, September 2026	5.1%	5.0%	49 · 48
Population	39,355,309	4,273,586	1 · 27
Population growth a year since 2020	−0.09%	+0.14%	46 · 39

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

CaliforniaOregon

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

CaliforniaOregon

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	CA	OR	Gap, pp	Larger in
Information	11.8%	4.7%	7.1	CA
Professional services	9.8%	6.3%	3.5	CA
Health care	7.0%	9.7%	2.8	OR
Government	10.6%	12.9%	2.3	OR
Construction	3.6%	4.8%	1.3	OR
Real estate	13.9%	15.1%	1.1	OR
Manufacturing	9.1%	10.1%	1.0	OR
Management of companies	2.0%	2.8%	0.8	OR
Agriculture	1.2%	1.8%	0.6	OR
Other services	1.8%	2.4%	0.6	OR
Arts & recreation	1.2%	0.9%	0.4	CA
Wholesale trade	6.1%	5.8%	0.3	CA
Accommodation & food	3.0%	3.3%	0.3	OR
Retail trade	5.4%	5.7%	0.3	OR
Education	1.1%	0.8%	0.3	CA
Utilities	1.5%	1.7%	0.2	OR
Finance & insurance	5.1%	5.3%	0.2	OR
Transportation & warehousing	2.9%	3.0%	0.2	OR
Mining, oil & gas	0.2%	0.1%	0.1	CA
Administrative & waste services	2.8%	2.8%	0.1	OR