Ohio vs West Virginia: two economies side by side

Ohio 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.

Great Lakes · SoutheastOhio leads on 8, West Virginia on 3 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · OH	B · WV	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$976.9B	$111.3B	7 · 43
Real GDP growth, 2025	+2.4%	+2.8%	17 · 10
Real growth a year since 2015	+1.5%	+1.4%	33 · 38
GDP per person	$82,087	$63,020	26 · 49
Income per person, 2025	$67,584	$58,217	37 · 50
Real income per person (2017 $)	$56,232	$50,051	34 · 50
Price level (US = 100)	92.8	89.5	35 · 43
Housing costs (US = 100)	73.0	54.2	38 · 51
Unemployment, September 2026	3.4%	4.0%	16 · 30
Population	11,900,510	1,766,147	7 · 39
Population growth a year since 2020	+0.17%	−0.29%	38 · 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

OhioWest Virginia

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

OhioWest Virginia

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	OH	WV	Gap, pp	Larger in
Mining, oil & gas	0.3%	13.9%	13.6	WV
Finance & insurance	13.3%	4.3%	9.0	OH
Manufacturing	13.6%	8.3%	5.3	OH
Government	10.0%	14.6%	4.6	WV
Health care	8.5%	11.5%	3.0	WV
Real estate	12.2%	10.1%	2.1	OH
Management of companies	2.9%	0.9%	2.0	OH
Wholesale trade	6.4%	4.6%	1.7	OH
Professional services	5.5%	4.4%	1.2	OH
Utilities	1.7%	2.8%	1.1	WV
Retail trade	5.9%	6.9%	1.0	WV
Information	2.6%	1.9%	0.7	OH
Transportation & warehousing	3.2%	2.5%	0.7	OH
Accommodation & food	2.5%	3.0%	0.5	WV
Arts & recreation	0.9%	0.6%	0.4	OH
Education	0.8%	0.5%	0.3	OH
Administrative & waste services	2.8%	2.6%	0.2	OH
Agriculture	0.7%	0.5%	0.2	OH
Construction	4.2%	4.2%	0.1	WV
Other services	2.1%	2.0%	0.0