Economy of California
The Seal of California features sailing ships in the background, symbolizing the state's economic power.
|
|
| Statistics | |
|---|---|
| GDP | $2.496 trillion (2015) |
|
GDP per capita
|
$63,763 (2015) |
|
Population below poverty line
|
16.4% (absolute) 23.5% (relative) |
|
Labor force
|
18,600,000 (June 2014) |
| Unemployment | 5.2% (May 2016) |
| Public finances | |
| Expenses | $220 billion (2011–12) State and local |
The economy of California is the largest in the United States. As of 2015, California's gross state product (GSP) is about $2.496 trillion. The state's GSP grew 4.1% in 2015.
California has experienced waves of migration. Once the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848 with Mexico that acquired and paid for the thinly settled future states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico as well as the independent territory of Texas the newly acquired territories underwent rapid and extensive development. In 1847, California was controlled (with much difficulty due to deserters leaving to look for gold) by a U.S. Army-appointed military governor and an inadequate force of a little over 600 troops. After the finding of extensive gold deposits in California the California gold rush started in 1848. Commerce and economic activity in California initially centered around the vastly expanded cities of San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento as they scrambled to supply the hordes of gold miners. Los Angeles initially remained a sleepy backwater of less than 5,000 residents. Before 1850 government was judged inadequate and poorly run and statehood status was sought to start trying to remedy this problem. Due to the California Gold Rush, by 1850 California had grown to have a non-Indian and non-Californio population (about 7,000 Californios were residing in California in 1850) of over 110,000. Despite a major conflict in the U.S. Congress on the number of slave versus non-slave states, the large, rapid and continuing California population gains and the large amount of gold being exported east gave California enough clout to choose its own extensive boundaries, elect its representatives and senators, write its Constitution, and be admitted to the Union as a free state in 1850 without going through territorial status as required for most other new states.
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