Minnesota ranks among the six fastest-growing state economies, according to recent data from The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).
 
The list is based on growth in gross domestic product (GDP) during 2012. The BEA data included durable-goods manufacturing, finance and insurance, wholesale trade, mining, construction, and agriculture.
 
Minnesota ranked fifth with a 2012 GDP growth rate of 3.5 percent, outpacing the national average of 2.5 percent. (The state tied with California for fifth.) Minnesota’s broad-based economic growth spanned several sectors, including manufacturing, construction, wholesale trade, finance, real estate development, and agriculture, according to BEA data. The largest contributors to Minnesota’s economic growth were durable-goods manufacturing (0.66 percent growth), wholesale trade (0.4 percent), and retail trade (0.19 percent).
 
North Dakota was the fastest-growing state with GDP growth of 13.4 percent. The state’s surge in mining made up 3.26 percent of its GDP growth rate. A separate report recently found that North Dakota’s “real personal income,” which takes into account the purchasing power of income in a given area, rose 9.5 percent to $32 billion in 2011.
 
Although North Dakota was described as the fastest-growing economy in 2012, its $39 billion “real GDP”—which is adjusted for inflation and incorporates a weighted average of prices for products produced within each state—was significantly smaller than Minnesota’s real GDP of $253 billion.
 
Texas ranked second among the fastest-growing economies with a GDP growth rate of 4.8 percent. Oregon ranked third with a 3.9 percent growth rate. Washington is the fourth fastest-growing state, right before Minnesota and California, with a 3.6 percent growth rate. Click here to see BEA’s map of the fastest-growing state economies.
 
According to the BEA, Connecticut experienced the least amount of economic growth in 2012. In fact, the state’s GDP decreased 0.1 percent last year. Delaware, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wyoming followed Connecticut as the slowest-growing states, each with a GDP growth rate of 0.2 percent. Click here to see BEA’s map of the slowest-growing states.
 
Minnesota’s GDP growth rate rose in 2012 after having declined from 3.9 percent in 2010 to 1.2 percent in 2011.