Maryland vs West Virginia: two economies side by side

Maryland 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.

Mideast · SoutheastMaryland leads on 8, West Virginia on 3 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · MD	B · WV	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$567.0B	$111.3B	18 · 43
Real GDP growth, 2025	+0.81%	+2.8%	46 · 10
Real growth a year since 2015	+1.4%	+1.4%	34 · 38
GDP per person	$90,501	$63,020	17 · 49
Income per person, 2025	$82,387	$58,217	11 · 50
Real income per person (2017 $)	$61,111	$50,051	16 · 50
Price level (US = 100)	105.0	89.5	8 · 43
Housing costs (US = 100)	121.1	54.2	10 · 51
Unemployment, September 2026	3.9%	4.0%	27 · 30
Population	6,265,347	1,766,147	19 · 39
Population growth a year since 2020	+0.28%	−0.29%	35 · 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

MarylandWest Virginia

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

MarylandWest Virginia

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	MD	WV	Gap, pp	Larger in
Mining, oil & gas	0.1%	13.9%	13.9	WV
Professional services	9.9%	4.4%	5.6	MD
Real estate	15.6%	10.1%	5.6	MD
Government	20.1%	14.6%	5.5	MD
Health care	7.7%	11.5%	3.7	WV
Manufacturing	5.3%	8.3%	3.0	WV
Information	4.0%	1.9%	2.1	MD
Construction	5.9%	4.2%	1.6	MD
Retail trade	5.4%	6.9%	1.5	WV
Utilities	1.6%	2.8%	1.2	WV
Education	1.5%	0.5%	1.0	MD
Arts & recreation	1.2%	0.6%	0.7	MD
Wholesale trade	5.2%	4.6%	0.6	MD
Administrative & waste services	3.1%	2.6%	0.5	MD
Finance & insurance	4.6%	4.3%	0.4	MD
Other services	2.3%	2.0%	0.3	MD
Transportation & warehousing	2.3%	2.5%	0.3	WV
Agriculture	0.2%	0.5%	0.3	WV
Accommodation & food	2.9%	3.0%	0.1	WV
Management of companies	1.0%	0.9%	0.1	MD