The Ohio Development Services Agency has published a report looking at Ohio’s gross domestic product. The goals of the paper are ambitious – examining how Ohio’s economy compares to its counterparts and also looking at the various sectors of the state’s economy. This analysis was also done by reviewing a twenty year window of time, from 1997 to 2017.
Overall findings included the following, among others:
- Ohio is the 7th largest source for Gross Domestic Product among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with nearly 3.4 percent of the national total in 2017.
- If Ohio was a separate country, it would be the 35th largest national economy in the world.
- Ohio’s manufacturing sector produced $107.9 billion worth of goods – 4.8 percent of America’s manufacturing output in 2017, ranking it 3rd in the nation after California and Texas.
- Ohio has recently become a leading source for oil and natural gas – 5th -ranked with 4.3 percent of national output; it also is a notable provider of related petroleum and coal products and pipeline services.
- Over one-half of the state’s Gross Domestic Product is created in the three largest metropolitan areas: Cincinnati, Cleveland-Elyria, and Columbus.
In its 147 pages, Mansfield is cited on several occasions. The following were specifically noted about the Richland County economy over this period of time:
- Mansfield is among those areas where manufacturing accounted for at least 20 percent of local GDPs. Others included Canton, Lima, Toledo and Weirton-Steubenville.
- Partial explanations of why industry output remains less than pre-recession levels include the permanent closures of GM’s Moraine assembly and Mansfield parts plants as well as Ford’s #2 Cleveland engine plant and Walton Hills stamping plant.
- Cleveland also was relatively hard-hit by the recession, with its economy contracting 8.8 percent – worse than the state average. Other areas which suffered about the same or worse than Cleveland include Canton-Massillon, Dayton, Mansfield, Springfield and Youngstown-Warren-Boardman. All of these smaller metropolitan areas were highly dependent on either or both of the highly cyclical steel and motor vehicle industries.
- Controlling for population changes shows that Canton-Massillon, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Mansfield, Springfield and Youngstown-Warren-Boardman all suffered steeper declines in output than the state as a whole.
The entire report can be accessed here.
