Forbes Richest Americans
10.07.2009
Obviously personal net worth and GDP are not the same thing, but this is still a fun exercise. Forbes released its 2009 list of The Richest People in America last week and I was curious about where these folks would rank among U.S. regions comparing net worth to GDP. The Bureau of Economic Analysis published 2008 GDP estimates for 366 metro areas in the U.S.
Some things to ponder:
Bill Gates is reportedly worth $50 billion, which would rank him as the 51st “richest” metro area in the U.S., just ahead of Honolulu and just behind Raleigh-Cary, NC. Bill Gates’s net worth is more than the combined GDP of the bottom 18 metro areas.
Warren Buffett is second on the Forbes list at $40 billion, which is good enough for 57th place among U.S. metro areas. Buffett makes his home in Omaha, which is only two spots ahead of him in 55th place. Buffett’s net worth trails Omaha’s GDP by “only” $4.9 billion.
Gates and Buffett’s combined net worth of $90 billion ranks in the top ten percent of metro areas. Together, they would be the largest metro area economy in twenty states.
Jim Walton and Rob Walton (Wal-Mart) are fifth and seventh, respectively, on the Forbes list with a combined net worth of $38.6 billion. They reside in Bentonville, AR, which is part of the Fayetteville metro area. Fayetteville’s GDP in 2008 was $17.5 billion.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google fame have a combined net worth of $30.6 billion, which is roughly equivalent to 21 percent of Silicon Valley’s GDP.
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About Civic Analytics LLC
Civic Analytics LLC is an Austin-based economic research and consulting firm. Brian Kelsey, Principal, blogs here about big data, economic development, and the Austin economy. Views here are his own. Photo credit: Austin Business Journal
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Ha! I love that you did this analysis!