Cincinnati claimed the top spot last year as the largest metropolitan economy in Ohio and moved up two spots to become the 28th largest in the U.S., according to a new government report.
The Cincinnati metro area's gross domestic product (GDP) — or the value of all goods and services produced in the area — grew by 4.3 percent last year to $132 billion, according to the 2016 Metropolitan GDP report from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis' (BEA).
That pushed the size of the local economy past Columbus, which ranked No. 29 nationally with GDP of $130.8 billion, and past the Cleveland metro area, which had GDP of $129.4 billion, ranking 30th nationally.
Columbus matched the growth rate in the Cincinnati metro, while Cleveland's GDP inched up 2.1 percent.
By comparison, the average U.S. metropolitan area’s economy grew at an annual rate of 1.7 percent last year, according to the BEA report.
Overall, Cincinnati was the 106th fastest-growing economy of the 382 metro areas included in the BEA’s report, and it was the 37th fastest-growing economy in 2016 among the 100 largest metro area's by population.
The Cincinnati metro area includes Hamilton, Warren, Butler, Brown, and Clermont counties in Ohio. The area also includes Dearborn, Franklin and Ohio counties in Southeast Indiana; Boone, Kenton, Bracken, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant and Pendleton counties in Northern Kentucky.
The Cincinnati area's GDP growth was driven primarily by non-durable goods manufacturing, while construction, trade, and information technology also contributed.
But improving growth rates were the exception rather than the rule across most of Ohio.
Most state metros showed either stagnant or declining GDP growth tied to lower oil prices and slowing manufacturing growth.
The biggest exception was Akron, where the economy grew at the fastest rate of all economies in Ohio at 5.5 percent - the 8th fastest-growing economy in the country last year. That helped boost Akron up two spots nationally to the 75th largest economy with GDP of $37.3 billion in 2016.
