North Carolina is one of six southern states that, together, have become an economic powerhouse, overtaking the once dominant Northeast region of the United States. That’s according to a new analysis from Bloomberg.
Joining the Tar Heel State on the list are Florida, Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Today, these six states contribute more to national Gross Domestic Product than the Washington-New York-Boston corridor. The switch occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A flood of transplants helped steer about $100 billion in new income to the Southeast in 2020 and 2021 alone, while the Northeast bled out about $60 billion, based on an analysis of recently published Internal Revenue Service data,” Bloomberg reports. “The Southeast accounted for more than two-thirds of all job growth across the US since early 2020, almost doubling its pre-pandemic share. And it was home to 10 of the 15 fastest-growing American large cities.”
That economic clout also translates into political power. In the past five decades, southern states added 33 more congressional seats, snatching them from the Northeast and Midwest. A report by Bloomberg Government found that southern lawmakers now chair 11 of the 21 most important committees in the U.S. House.