Seattle area shows fastest economic growth in the nation.

I was born and raised in Burien, pretty much considered a suburb of the Seattle area. I went to school in the Highline School District. Then left the Seattle area to go to college at Central Washington College. (Now Central Washington University.) 

I've always thought of Seattle as a high-tech boom town and now there's some data that might prove that this is true. 

According to axios.com,
‘The Seattle area had the fastest economic growth among large U.S. metros last year, according to new federal data.
Why it matters: Although Seattle's central business district has been slower to recover from the pandemic than some cities' downtowns, the numbers released last week show the region's economy as a whole has been booming.’ 

Based on the data, the Seattle metro area had the largest growth in GDP, approximately 6.2% from 2022 to 2023. The other top 10 metros would include Houston TX, Charlotte NC San Antonio TX, Austin TX, Orlando Fla, Tampa Bay Fla, Jacksonville Fla, Maimi Fla and Denver CO. I think it would be really interesting to see what the numbers are going to be from 2023 to 2024. Will Seattle stay #1 or will Austin, TX move up on the list. 

Looking at the Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue metro, the tech and information industry generated most of the growth at approximately. $133.7 billion in the region last year. That's up from $115.8 billion in the previous year. One of the other big drivers is retail, going up from 44.3 billion in 2022 to over 50 billion in 2023. 

One bit of information that is not factored into this report is the rapid expansion of Artificial intelligence and the fact that Seattle, San Francisco and San Jose are the major hotspots for Artificial intelligence job opportunities with Seattle being the second largest job market for Artificial intelligence. in the United States. 

Seattle area leads nation in economic growth - Axios Seattle
Gross Domestic Product by County and Metropolitan Area, 2023 | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
America's AI job hotspots: Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose - Axios Seattle