Maryland vs Virginia: two economies side by side

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

Mideast · SoutheastMaryland leads on 1, Virginia on 10 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · MD	B · VA	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$567.0B	$807.9B	18 · 13
Real GDP growth, 2025	+0.81%	+2.3%	46 · 18
Real growth a year since 2015	+1.4%	+2.4%	34 · 19
GDP per person	$90,501	$90,981	17 · 15
Income per person, 2025	$82,387	$80,903	11 · 12
Real income per person (2017 $)	$61,111	$61,914	16 · 15
Price level (US = 100)	105.0	101.1	8 · 16
Housing costs (US = 100)	121.1	106.8	10 · 17
Unemployment, September 2026	3.9%	3.6%	27 · 24
Population	6,265,347	8,880,107	19 · 12
Population growth a year since 2020	+0.28%	+0.56%	35 · 23

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

MarylandVirginia

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

MarylandVirginia

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	MD	VA	Gap, pp	Larger in
Government	20.1%	16.2%	3.9	MD
Professional services	9.9%	12.4%	2.5	VA
Manufacturing	5.3%	7.3%	2.0	VA
Finance & insurance	4.6%	6.4%	1.8	VA
Management of companies	1.0%	2.6%	1.6	VA
Real estate	15.6%	14.1%	1.5	MD
Health care	7.7%	6.6%	1.1	MD
Construction	5.9%	4.9%	1.0	MD
Education	1.5%	0.8%	0.6	MD
Arts & recreation	1.2%	0.7%	0.5	MD
Information	4.0%	4.5%	0.5	VA
Transportation & warehousing	2.3%	2.7%	0.4	VA
Wholesale trade	5.2%	4.8%	0.4	MD
Mining, oil & gas	0.1%	0.3%	0.2	VA
Administrative & waste services	3.1%	3.2%	0.2	VA
Utilities	1.6%	1.6%	0.1	MD
Agriculture	0.2%	0.3%	0.1	VA
Accommodation & food	2.9%	2.8%	0.0
Retail trade	5.4%	5.5%	0.0
Other services	2.3%	2.4%	0.0