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It might not be host to a major tech conference like South by Southwest, but the greater Tampa Bay metro area is about as economically productive as Austin, home to the hipster summit, according to the latest available data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Tampa Bay’s economy churned out more than $146 billion in gross domestic product in 2017. That’s about a percentage point behind Austin’s productivity. Among metropolitan statistical areas in the Southeast, only Atlanta ($386 billion), Miami ($345 billion) and Charlotte ($174 billion) posted larger GDPs. Nationwide, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA ranks 26th in productivity, just ahead of Indianapolis and a few spots in front of Nashville.
Tampa’s metro economy also had a GDP advantage of more than $40 billion over Orlando in 2017, estimates show. But even if the two economies were to merge (Orlampa? Tampando?), they’d still trail Miami as the state’s largest metro economy ($279 billion).
Beyond Florida’s three largest metro economies, it’s a sizable step down to Jacksonville’s level ($77 billion), then another big step to the Gulf Coast’s second largest metro by GDP: North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, at $31 billion. From there, Cape Coral-Fort Myers is not too far off, at $28 billion.
A metro economy’s GDP figure represents the total value of the goods and services produced in that area. Public and private sector analysts use GDP to compare the relative sizes of specific economic regions.
GDP, 2017 dollars, in billions
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater
146,349
North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton
31,197
Cape Coral-Fort Myers
27,953
Lakeland-Winter Haven
21,155
Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island
18,236
Punta Gorda
4,321
SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
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