PolicyLink and PERE
34
An Equity Profile of Orange County
116%
71%
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
125%
1979 1988 1997 2006 2015
209%
118%
-20%
20%
60%
100%
140%
180%
220%
19 79 19 88 19 97 20 06 20 15
The regional economy is growing stronger and faster than
the rest of the nation
Measures of economic growth include
increases in jobs and increases in Gross
Regional Product (GRP), the value of all
goods and services produced within the
region.
By these measures, economic growth in
Orange County kept pace with and
surpassed the national average in the 1980s.
The downturn of the early 1990s and the
recession in 2007 hit the region more
drastically than the nation as a whole but
since then economic growth in Orange
County has outpaced the nation.
From 1979 to 2016, the number of jobs
increased by 71 percent in the United States
and by 116 percent in Orange County. Over
the same period, real GDP increased by 118
percent in the United States and GRP
increased by 209 percent in Orange County.
Job growth has exceeded the national average since the
early 1980s
Economic vitality
19. Cumulative Job Growth, 1979 to 2016
Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Gross regional product (GRP) growth has outpaced the
national average since the early 1980s
20. Cumulative Growth in Real GRP, 1979 to 2016
2016
2016
