Missouri vs Nebraska: two economies side by side

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

PlainsMissouri leads on 3, Nebraska on 8 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · MO	B · NE	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$475.4B	$206.6B	22 · 34
Real GDP growth, 2025	+1.2%	+1.3%	42 · 41
Real growth a year since 2015	+1.6%	+2.7%	31 · 14
GDP per person	$75,811	$102,386	38 · 9
Income per person, 2025	$69,836	$76,055	31 · 20
Real income per person (2017 $)	$57,850	$65,297	28 · 6
Price level (US = 100)	90.8	90.1	39 · 41
Housing costs (US = 100)	69.9	75.2	42 · 35
Unemployment, September 2026	3.6%	2.9%	21 · 6
Population	6,270,541	2,018,006	18 · 38
Population growth a year since 2020	+0.37%	+0.55%	32 · 24

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

MissouriNebraska

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

MissouriNebraska

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	MO	NE	Gap, pp	Larger in
Finance & insurance	9.2%	19.1%	9.9	NE
Real estate	12.7%	8.5%	4.2	MO
Agriculture	1.2%	5.1%	3.9	NE
Professional services	6.8%	4.1%	2.7	MO
Health care	9.3%	6.9%	2.4	MO
Transportation & warehousing	3.3%	5.0%	1.7	NE
Utilities	1.6%	3.3%	1.7	NE
Retail trade	6.5%	4.9%	1.6	MO
Manufacturing	10.7%	9.2%	1.5	MO
Accommodation & food	3.0%	2.2%	0.8	MO
Wholesale trade	7.0%	6.3%	0.6	MO
Management of companies	2.2%	1.6%	0.6	MO
Administrative & waste services	2.9%	2.3%	0.6	MO
Arts & recreation	1.1%	0.5%	0.6	MO
Education	1.1%	0.6%	0.6	MO
Information	3.7%	3.3%	0.5	MO
Other services	2.3%	1.9%	0.4	MO
Mining, oil & gas	0.2%	0.1%	0.1	MO
Construction	4.8%	4.7%	0.1	MO
Government	10.3%	10.2%	0.0