Iowa vs Minnesota: two economies side by side

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

PlainsIowa leads on 3, Minnesota on 8 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · IA	B · MN	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$271.9B	$515.1B	32 · 20
Real GDP growth, 2025	−0.43%	+0.70%	50 · 47
Real growth a year since 2015	+0.97%	+1.3%	49 · 40
GDP per person	$83,973	$88,350	24 · 20
Income per person, 2025	$67,321	$78,197	38 · 17
Real income per person (2017 $)	$60,144	$62,039	19 · 14
Price level (US = 100)	87.8	98.6	49 · 22
Housing costs (US = 100)	65.3	91.3	44 · 23
Unemployment, September 2026	3.2%	4.5%	9 · 39
Population	3,238,387	5,830,405	32 · 22
Population growth a year since 2020	+0.29%	+0.42%	34 · 30

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

IowaMinnesota

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

IowaMinnesota

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	IA	MN	Gap, pp	Larger in
Finance & insurance	15.7%	9.1%	6.6	IA
Manufacturing	16.8%	11.3%	5.5	IA
Real estate	8.8%	12.6%	3.8	MN
Health care	6.2%	10.1%	3.8	MN
Agriculture	5.2%	1.6%	3.6	IA
Professional services	3.7%	6.9%	3.2	MN
Management of companies	1.6%	3.3%	1.7	MN
Wholesale trade	6.0%	7.6%	1.6	MN
Government	10.6%	9.5%	1.1	IA
Information	2.5%	3.2%	0.6	MN
Construction	4.5%	5.0%	0.5	MN
Administrative & waste services	2.0%	2.3%	0.3	MN
Accommodation & food	2.2%	2.5%	0.3	MN
Arts & recreation	0.8%	1.1%	0.3	MN
Education	0.8%	0.9%	0.2	MN
Mining, oil & gas	0.2%	0.3%	0.2	MN
Other services	2.0%	2.2%	0.1	MN
Utilities	1.6%	1.6%	0.1	MN
Transportation & warehousing	3.2%	3.2%	0.0
Retail trade	5.6%	5.7%	0.0