North Dakota Posts The Second Fastest Year Of Economic Growth Ever Recorded

Not surprisingly, North Dakota’s economy was the fastest growing in the nation in 2012. The national average was 2.5%, and North Dakota’s GDP grew by 13.4%. But not only did North Dakota’s economy grow five times the national rate of growth, and twice it’s own 2011 rate of 7.2%, it grew four times faster than the state with the second strongest growth which is Texas at 4.8%.

North Dakota’s rate of economic growth in 2012 was the second fastest ever recorded by the Bureau of Economic Analysis which keeps records going back to 1988.

And that growth indexes directly to the growth in oil production, as this chart from Professor Mark Perry shows:

More from Perry:

On a per-capita basis, North Dakota also ranked No. 1 in the country with a 10.8% increase in its 2012 per-capita real GDP, compared to a 1.7% national average, and 3.27% increases for both Texas and West Virginia (tied for No. 2). The Peace Garden State’s 10.8% increase in real per-capita GDP last year was also the highest increase ever recorded by the BEA since 1988, except for a 11.9% increase in Oregon’s real per-capita GDP growth in 1996.

Drill, baby, drill.