Kentucky vs West Virginia: two economies side by side

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

SoutheastKentucky leads on 8, West Virginia on 3 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · KY	B · WV	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$313.6B	$111.3B	29 · 43
Real GDP growth, 2025	+3.0%	+2.8%	7 · 10
Real growth a year since 2015	+1.8%	+1.4%	26 · 38
GDP per person	$68,065	$63,020	44 · 49
Income per person, 2025	$60,835	$58,217	48 · 50
Real income per person (2017 $)	$52,290	$50,051	46 · 50
Price level (US = 100)	90.2	89.5	40 · 43
Housing costs (US = 100)	64.3	54.2	45 · 51
Unemployment, September 2026	4.7%	4.0%	42 · 30
Population	4,606,864	1,766,147	26 · 39
Population growth a year since 2020	+0.43%	−0.29%	29 · 51

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

KentuckyWest Virginia

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

KentuckyWest Virginia

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	KY	WV	Gap, pp	Larger in
Mining, oil & gas	0.8%	13.9%	13.2	WV
Manufacturing	15.7%	8.3%	7.4	KY
Wholesale trade	8.1%	4.6%	3.4	KY
Finance & insurance	7.5%	4.3%	3.2	KY
Transportation & warehousing	5.1%	2.5%	2.6	KY
Government	12.1%	14.6%	2.5	WV
Health care	9.0%	11.5%	2.4	WV
Real estate	11.2%	10.1%	1.2	KY
Utilities	1.7%	2.8%	1.1	WV
Agriculture	1.2%	0.5%	0.7	KY
Retail trade	6.3%	6.9%	0.6	WV
Administrative & waste services	3.0%	2.6%	0.4	KY
Accommodation & food	3.4%	3.0%	0.4	KY
Information	2.2%	1.9%	0.4	KY
Construction	4.0%	4.2%	0.3	WV
Management of companies	1.1%	0.9%	0.2	KY
Other services	2.1%	2.0%	0.1	KY
Education	0.6%	0.5%	0.1	KY
Professional services	4.3%	4.4%	0.0
Arts & recreation	0.6%	0.6%	0.0