In case you missed it, California is the biggest “donor state” in the country — providing around $83 billion more to the federal government than it receives from the federal government — nearly three times as much as the next biggest “donor state.”

As a recent Bloomberg column stated: “It should go without saying California is critical to US economic dominance globally, accounting for more than 14% of US’s $28 trillion of GDP as measured by the World Bank and more than 50% greater than the next largest state by the size of its economy — Texas.”

Early this year, Paul Krugman, the 2008 Nobel Laureate in economics, wrote that California is “an economic and technological powerhouse” that “is literally subsidizing the rest of the United States, red states in particular, through the federal budget.” Without California, “America would be a lot poorer and weaker than it is.”

And according to most recent data (2022), California contributes nearly $700 billion to the federal government. Simply put, as California goes - so goes the country. 

Key economic data

California is the world’s 4th largest economy, with an increasing state population — multiple years in a row — and recent record-high tourism spending. And for the second year in a row, leads the nation in Fortune 500 company headquarters.

California is number 1 in the nation for new business starts, access to venture capital funding, manufacturing, high-tech, and agriculture.

• California is the leading agricultural producer in the country and is also the center for manufacturing output in the United States, with over 36,000 manufacturing firms employing over 1.1 million Californians. 

• The Golden State’s manufacturing firms have created new industries and supplied the world with manufactured goods spanning aerospace, computers and electronics, and, most recently, zero-emission vehicles.