North Carolina vs South Carolina: two economies side by side

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

SoutheastNorth Carolina leads on 6, South Carolina on 5 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · NC	B · SC	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$895.9B	$378.4B	9 · 24
Real GDP growth, 2025	+1.8%	+3.3%	30 · 4
Real growth a year since 2015	+2.7%	+3.0%	15 · 10
GDP per person	$80,007	$67,929	31 · 45
Income per person, 2025	$68,274	$63,435	36 · 45
Real income per person (2017 $)	$56,310	$52,463	33 · 45
Price level (US = 100)	94.3	93.7	31 · 33
Housing costs (US = 100)	81.4	80.5	30 · 31
Unemployment, September 2026	3.4%	4.0%	15 · 29
Population	11,197,968	5,570,274	9 · 23
Population growth a year since 2020	+1.4%	+1.7%	6 · 3

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

North CarolinaSouth Carolina

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

North CarolinaSouth Carolina

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	NC	SC	Gap, pp	Larger in
Finance & insurance	10.9%	5.2%	5.7	NC
Real estate	12.7%	15.6%	2.9	SC
Government	11.3%	12.9%	1.6	SC
Information	4.3%	2.8%	1.5	NC
Wholesale trade	5.9%	7.3%	1.4	SC
Accommodation & food	3.0%	4.4%	1.4	SC
Retail trade	6.0%	7.4%	1.4	SC
Management of companies	2.0%	1.0%	1.0	NC
Professional services	7.3%	6.4%	0.9	NC
Construction	4.8%	5.5%	0.7	SC
Education	1.3%	0.7%	0.6	NC
Manufacturing	12.4%	12.9%	0.4	SC
Health care	6.7%	6.4%	0.4	NC
Utilities	1.7%	2.1%	0.3	SC
Other services	2.1%	2.3%	0.2	SC
Agriculture	0.6%	0.4%	0.2	NC
Arts & recreation	0.8%	0.7%	0.1	NC
Mining, oil & gas	0.2%	0.3%	0.1	SC
Transportation & warehousing	2.5%	2.4%	0.1	NC
Administrative & waste services	3.5%	3.5%	0.0