by Hans D. Stroo on November 4, 2014
1.) Oregon has led the Northwest U.S. in economic growth since the 2007 recession.
Real state GDP grew 22 percent in Oregon between 2007 and 2013. Washington State’s GDP grew by 7.44 percent. Nationwide, the economy grew 4.74 percent between 2007 and ’13.
Real GDP is expressed in chained 2009 dollars
Bureau of Economic Accounts, Regional Data.
2.) Evidence suggests that Canada’s median family incomes have fared better than those of the U.S.
The comparison is imperfect — the Canadian dataset is percent change in real median family income of provinces from 2008-2012. The American dataset is percent change in U.S. real median household income from 2007-2013. Nonetheless, this comparison provides evidence that the recession was harder on U.S. households than those of Canada.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Fact Finder.
Government of Canada, Statistics Canada, Median total income by family type.
Looking across metro- and micropolitan regions, households have not recovered to their pre-recession income levels in most areas of the Northwest. This visualization depicts the Northwest as Washington, Oregon, and northern California (defined as San Francisco and everything north of it).