Colorado vs Utah: two economies side by side

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

Rocky MountainColorado leads on 5, Utah on 6 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · CO	B · UT	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$574.9B	$319.2B	17 · 28
Real GDP growth, 2025	+1.9%	+2.7%	27 · 13
Real growth a year since 2015	+3.2%	+4.6%	8 · 1
GDP per person	$95,610	$90,191	12 · 18
Income per person, 2025	$86,342	$70,323	10 · 30
Real income per person (2017 $)	$65,223	$55,116	8 · 40
Price level (US = 100)	103.1	98.9	13 · 21
Housing costs (US = 100)	127.4	107.8	5 · 15
Unemployment, September 2026	4.1%	3.5%	31 · 19
Population	6,012,561	3,538,904	20 · 30
Population growth a year since 2020	+0.77%	+1.5%	15 · 5

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

ColoradoUtah

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

ColoradoUtah

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	CO	UT	Gap, pp	Larger in
Manufacturing	5.1%	9.3%	4.2	UT
Finance & insurance	5.8%	9.9%	4.1	UT
Professional services	11.4%	7.5%	3.9	CO
Construction	5.7%	7.8%	2.2	UT
Real estate	15.8%	14.0%	1.8	CO
Mining, oil & gas	3.0%	1.5%	1.5	CO
Utilities	1.1%	2.3%	1.2	UT
Accommodation & food	3.6%	2.6%	1.1	CO
Retail trade	5.5%	6.6%	1.1	UT
Government	11.3%	10.4%	0.9	CO
Health care	6.4%	5.5%	0.9	CO
Information	6.4%	5.5%	0.9	CO
Management of companies	1.9%	1.2%	0.8	CO
Arts & recreation	1.5%	0.9%	0.7	CO
Wholesale trade	5.5%	5.0%	0.5	CO
Education	0.8%	1.3%	0.5	UT
Transportation & warehousing	3.4%	3.2%	0.2	CO
Administrative & waste services	2.8%	2.8%	0.1	CO
Other services	2.3%	2.3%	0.0
Agriculture	0.5%	0.5%	0.0