North Carolina vs Virginia: two economies side by side

North Carolina and Virginia 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 7, Virginia on 4 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · NC	B · VA	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$895.9B	$807.9B	9 · 13
Real GDP growth, 2025	+1.8%	+2.3%	30 · 18
Real growth a year since 2015	+2.7%	+2.4%	15 · 19
GDP per person	$80,007	$90,981	31 · 15
Income per person, 2025	$68,274	$80,903	36 · 12
Real income per person (2017 $)	$56,310	$61,914	33 · 15
Price level (US = 100)	94.3	101.1	31 · 16
Housing costs (US = 100)	81.4	106.8	30 · 17
Unemployment, September 2026	3.4%	3.6%	15 · 24
Population	11,197,968	8,880,107	9 · 12
Population growth a year since 2020	+1.4%	+0.56%	6 · 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

North CarolinaVirginia

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

North CarolinaVirginia

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	NC	VA	Gap, pp	Larger in
Manufacturing	12.4%	7.3%	5.2	NC
Professional services	7.3%	12.4%	5.1	VA
Government	11.3%	16.2%	4.8	VA
Finance & insurance	10.9%	6.4%	4.5	NC
Real estate	12.7%	14.1%	1.4	VA
Wholesale trade	5.9%	4.8%	1.0	NC
Management of companies	2.0%	2.6%	0.6	VA
Retail trade	6.0%	5.5%	0.6	NC
Education	1.3%	0.8%	0.4	NC
Agriculture	0.6%	0.3%	0.3	NC
Administrative & waste services	3.5%	3.2%	0.3	NC
Other services	2.1%	2.4%	0.3	VA
Transportation & warehousing	2.5%	2.7%	0.2	VA
Utilities	1.7%	1.6%	0.2	NC
Accommodation & food	3.0%	2.8%	0.2	NC
Information	4.3%	4.5%	0.1	VA
Mining, oil & gas	0.2%	0.3%	0.1	VA
Health care	6.7%	6.6%	0.1	NC
Construction	4.8%	4.9%	0.1	VA
Arts & recreation	0.8%	0.7%	0.1	NC