Windham County Leads 2019 State GDP Growth

The smallest Connecticut county in terms of economic output had the state’s largest GDP growth in percentage terms last year.

Windham County’s gross domestic product grew 2.6% in 2019, the highest among Connecticut’s eight counties, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

	2017	2018	2019	2017	2018	2019
Connecticut	$248.1B	$249B	$251B	0.9%	0.4%	0.9%
Fairfield	$79B	$79.3B	$79.8B	-0.3%	0.3%	0.7%
Hartford	$79B	$79.5B	$79.9B	1.4%	0.2%	0.6%
Litchfield	$7.5B	$7.4B	$7.6B	-0.1%	-1.1%	2.1%
Middlesex	$8.8B	$8.5B	$8.7B	1.2%	-2.6%	1.6%
New Haven	$46.7B	$47.7B	$48.4B	0.7%	2.1%	1.5%
New London	$17.3B	$17.2	$17.3B	4.5%	-0.4%	0.7%
Tolland	$4.9B	$4.8B	$4.9B	4.3%	-1.9%	0.4%
Windham	$4.5B	$4.6B	$4.7B	-1.9%	1.1%	2.6%

Next highest was Litchfield County, which grew 2.1%, followed by Middlesex (1.6%) and New Haven (1.5%) counties.

At $4.68 billion, Windham County has the smallest GDP among Connecticut counties in 2019.

Litchfield County’s 2.1% GDP growth pushed its economy to $7.6 billion in 2019.

Hartford and Fairfield counties have the largest economies, each with a 2019 GDP of around $79 billion.

But neither county had appreciable growth in 2019 as Fairfield’s GDP grew by just 0.7% while Hartford’s increased by 0.6%.

New London County’s year-over-year growth was 0.7% while Tolland County has the smallest increase at 0.4%.

State GDP

The state’s overall GDP growth was 0.9%, from roughly $249 billion in 2018 to $251 billion in 2019.

That placed Connecticut near the bottom of the New England states.

Only Vermont at 0.8% had slower growth than Connecticut.

Connecticut’s overall GDP growth was 0.9%, from roughly $249 billion in 2018 to $251 billion in 2019.

Maine led New England states with a 2.6% increase in its GDP, followed by Massachusetts (2.4%), New Hampshire (1.4%), and Rhode Island (1%).

Nationwide, New Mexico had the largest growth at 5.2% followed by Washington (4.6%), Colorado (3.9%), Utah (3.8%), and California and Idaho (3.4% each).

As a whole, the country’s GDP grew 2.2% in 2019, down from 3% growth in 2018.