Illinois vs Kentucky: two economies side by side

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

Great Lakes · SoutheastIllinois leads on 6, Kentucky on 5 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · IL	B · KY	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$1.24T	$313.6B	5 · 29
Real GDP growth, 2025	+2.6%	+3.0%	14 · 7
Real growth a year since 2015	+1.4%	+1.8%	37 · 26
GDP per person	$97,568	$68,065	11 · 44
Income per person, 2025	$78,987	$60,835	15 · 48
Real income per person (2017 $)	$60,333	$52,290	17 · 46
Price level (US = 100)	100.0	90.2	19 · 40
Housing costs (US = 100)	93.9	64.3	21 · 45
Unemployment, September 2026	4.6%	4.7%	41 · 42
Population	12,719,141	4,606,864	6 · 26
Population growth a year since 2020	−0.12%	+0.43%	48 · 29

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

IllinoisKentucky

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

IllinoisKentucky

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	IL	KY	Gap, pp	Larger in
Manufacturing	11.3%	15.7%	4.4	KY
Professional services	8.3%	4.3%	4.0	IL
Finance & insurance	11.0%	7.5%	3.5	IL
Government	8.9%	12.1%	3.3	KY
Information	4.2%	2.2%	2.0	IL
Health care	7.4%	9.0%	1.7	KY
Real estate	12.8%	11.2%	1.6	IL
Transportation & warehousing	4.0%	5.1%	1.1	KY
Retail trade	5.3%	6.3%	1.0	KY
Education	1.3%	0.6%	0.8	IL
Mining, oil & gas	0.1%	0.8%	0.6	KY
Arts & recreation	1.1%	0.6%	0.5	IL
Construction	3.4%	4.0%	0.5	KY
Agriculture	0.8%	1.2%	0.4	KY
Wholesale trade	8.5%	8.1%	0.4	IL
Accommodation & food	3.0%	3.4%	0.4	KY
Administrative & waste services	3.3%	3.0%	0.3	IL
Management of companies	1.4%	1.1%	0.3	IL
Utilities	1.8%	1.7%	0.2	IL
Other services	2.1%	2.1%	0.0