The following is a translation of an article written by János Matuz, a research fellow at the Europe Strategy Institute of the University of Public Service, originally published on the Five Minutes Europe blog of Ludovika.hu.

‘Mississippi, the poorest state in the United States, is close to surpassing Europe’s largest economy, Germany’s GDP per capita,’ Euronews wrote in its article on 3 January 2025, comparing the gross domestic product (GDP) of US member states with that of European countries.

And of course, it is not only Mississippi as the poorest US state, but also the per capita GDP of large and wealthy US states like New York and California, and the comparison of the per capita GDP of the largest EU economies like Germany, France, and Italy on a single chart, which are quite telling: for example, Germany’s per capita GDP is less than half that of New York State.

‘Germany’s per capita GDP is less than half that of New York State’

Only Luxembourg and Ireland are above the US GDP per capita. Still, as the article points out, they are exceptions: Luxembourg’s high GDP is partly explained by the fact that many foreign residents work in the country and thus contribute to its GDP, while Ireland’s GDP is distorted by the tax planning activities of US multinationals. In other words, with the exception of these two smaller EU member states with unique economic endowments, all EU member states have GDP per capita well below that of the US. The EU’s GDP per capita (USD 43,353) is half that of the US (USD 86,601). Hungary is not on the list, but it is worth noting that ours is USD 25,700.

If we look at GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), the situation is a little better, but still, only Luxembourg and Ireland are ahead of the US average (USD 86,601). The EU’s PPP GDP per capita is 72 per cent of the US average, that is, USD 62,660.

Although today we are witnessing the beginning of the opposite trend with the unfolding customs war, if we nevertheless consider the EU and the US as one economic area, then the PPP GDP per capita of this area would be USD 74,630, which would come before all EU member states including the three largest EU economies (Germany, France, Italy), and which would only be overtaken by the aforementioned Luxembourg and Ireland, plus Denmark and the Netherlands, that is, four EU member states in total.

It is worth looking not only at per capita figures but also at the size of economies. This is perfectly illustrated by the following Visual Capitalist charts. For example, the German economy, which is the largest in the EU and makes up almost a quarter of it, is smaller than the two western US states of California and Washington combined. Or the German, French, and Italian economies, which account for more than half of the EU economy, with their combined size of USD 10,3 trillion, are smaller than the combined size of the top four US states—California, Texas, New York, and Florida—with their USD 10,8 trillion. The size and distribution of the economies of the US and the EU, with economies of USD 29 trillion and USD 19 trillion respectively, have an impact on everything, so it is worth bearing these facts in mind at all times, including when the EU and its member states are negotiating more and more disputes with the US.

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