Economic Growth Dashboard

The Greater Washington Partnership's Economic Growth Dashboard is an interactive tool to explore the Baltimore-Washington-Richmond region’s economic trends and socioeconomic landscape.

The tool creates a foundational knowledge base and dynamic resource to inform and motivate action among the region's stakeholders – informing policies, programs, and investments that drive a competitive economy.

Explore economic indicators for the region using the menu on the left, organized by focus area.

Regional Trends

Even amid dramatic disruptions to the region’s economy, the Baltimore-Washington-Richmond corridor remains a leading economic engine for the country. But lingering federal cutbacks, slowing private-sector job growth, and stubborn affordability challenges will continue to play outsized roles in the region's fortunes in 2026.
Federal cutbacks are affecting the foundations of the region’s economy – with spillovers into the private sector. All three of the region’s metro areas lost jobs over the year ending February 2026, setting region’s collective employment trajectory apart from virtually every other major region.
Across the region, a gap in minority business ownership relative to the share of the workforce persists, although it is shrinking. Overall business formation remains elevated above prepandemic levels, but the trend suggests a return to more typical levels.
The region continues to exhibit high levels of educational attainment, contributing to high rates of labor force participation. Postsecondary educational institutions across DC, MD, and VA produce a significant number of graduates with business, computer science, health, and social science degrees.
The region’s transit agencies continue to rebound from the pandemic, although the rate of recovery slowed somewhat in recent months. Overall ridership continues toward its prepandemic trip volume across many transit providers, as work from home becomes less prevalent and service improves.
The region faces a housing gap of nearly 390K units, as housing production has not kept pace with demand, contributing to affordability challenges. At the same time, nearly 700K households are considered rent-burdened, spending more than 30% of income on housing.

Combined GDP across the region’s three metro areas exceeded $1.1 trillion dollars in 2024.
Metro Washington is responsible for about 65% of the region's economic output, totaling almost $750 billion in 2024.
Economic output in metro Baltimore exceeds $275 billion – the second largest in the region, representing just under one-fourth of the region’s GDP.
Metro Richmond’s GDP totals nearly $124 billion.
The industry sectors that contribute to each metro area’s GDP vary in relative importance:
Government and government enterprises contribute 21.5% of the Washington metro area's GDP, 18% of Baltimore’s, and 12.8% of Richmond’s. All surpass the U.S. share of 11.3%, demonstrating the region’s reliance on government and government enterprises for economic activity.
The dominance of the professional and business services industry is also evident in metro Washington, making up 23% of economic output – more than 10 percentage points higher than the U.S. overall.
Health care and social assistance as a share of metro GDP is highest in Baltimore (8.5%), while the finance and insurance industry share is highest in Richmond (7.9%).

Over the past five years, real GDP growth across the region has been in the middle of the pack relative to select peer metro areas.
Metro Washington led the region’s GDP growth since 2019, expanding by 11% in real terms, followed by Richmond (9.6%) and Baltimore (8.5%).
Peer metros in Sun Belt states and tech centers, such as Charlotte, Seattle, and Dallas, have seen 21-22% growth in real GDP since 2019, suggesting that these cities have been better equipped to capitalize on higher growth industries.

Real GDP growth in Maryland and Washington, DC, has trailed significantly behind the U.S. and peers over the past five years. Meanwhile, Virginia’s economic output has generally grown at the same pace as the country overall.
However, recent federal cutbacks and slowing private sector growth contributed to lower growth across all jurisdictions in 2025.
Washington, DC: Over the past five years, real GDP has only grown by an anemic 2.3%. Economic output has stalled over the past year amid a decline in federal government and private sector jobs, leading to a decline in real GDP last year.
Maryland: Real GDP has grown by just over 10% since the end of 2020, trailing most peer states’ economies. Similarly to DC, the state’s real economic output shrank slightly in 2025.
Virginia: The state posted the highest cumulative real GDP growth (+14.2%) in the region over the past five years, clearly outpacing Maryland and Washington, DC. However, overall growth slowed last year – just not to the same extent as its neighbors.

U.S. job growth remained modest through early 2026, with total employment rising just 0.1% over the year ending in February. All three of the region’s anchor metro areas moved in the opposite direction, recording year-over-year job losses, reflecting the dual impacts of federal and private sector job losses. The region’s collective trajectory sets it apart from virtually every other major region.
Metro Washington's job losses over the past year are the largest of any major metro in the country, shedding approximately 112,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis over the year – a decline of nearly 3.5%. The losses are steeper than occurred during the Great Recession and primarily driven by federal workforce reductions (-61,500). However, that leaves a significant decline in the private sector as well, suggesting that private employers have not been able to absorb former federal workers into the labor force and are resorting to cutbacks and less hiring of their own.
The Baltimore metro area shed approximately 18,700 jobs over the year — a decline of roughly 1.3%. While smaller in absolute terms than Washington's losses, the drop is notable relative to Baltimore's overall employment base and reflects the region's significant exposure to both direct federal employment and the contracting ecosystem that supports it.
Richmond has held up better than its regional peers but is no longer immune. The metro area has now recorded two consecutive months of year-over-year job losses, with overall employment 0.3% smaller than a year earlier. Even with a much smaller federal footprint than Washington and Baltimore, the federal cutbacks were responsible for nearly all of the contraction in February, suggesting that weak private job growth has not been sufficient to maintain overall employment growth.

The region from Baltimore to Richmond continues to boast median household incomes (MHIs) higher than the country overall.
Metro Washington boasts the highest MHI in the region at $126.2K, while the median household earned $98.7K in Baltimore and $83.5K in Richmond.
White, non-Hispanic and Asian households earned considerably more than other racial and ethnic groups across all three metro areas.

Population growth remained positive in 2025 for the second year in a row, adding 4,259 new residents between July 2024 and July 2025 (+0.1%).
The largest contributor to growth was international migration, with more than 5.8K people moving to the region from abroad.
Domestic migration remained a drag on growth, although the metro area only lost 5.1K residents to other parts of the country last year – the fewest people so far this decade.

Population growth slowed somewhat in metro Richmond last year amid a decline in international migration. The metro area added 14,611 residents between July 2024 and July 2025.
Richmond is the only metro area in the region to consistently attract new residents from elsewhere in the country (domestic migration) since 2021.
Richmond was the fastest-growing metro area in the region last year, expanding by 1.1%.

Population growth slowed somewhat in 2025, as the metro region added 50,206 new residents between July 2024 and July 2025 (+0.8%).
Metro Washington continues to struggle with outmigration, with a net loss of nearly 24,000 people to other parts of the country.
International migration continues to power the region’s growth, with nearly 45K people moving to the region from abroad.

Given its significant presence of higher education institutions and health providers, the largest share of employment (21%) is located in those industries in metro Baltimore.
Professional services (18%) and government (16%) also make up a significant share of employment given the relatively large federal government presence and associated services in the region.

Trade, transportation, and utilities makes up the largest employment sector in metro Richmond at 19%. This industry group includes a variety of occupations, such as retailers, truck drivers, and electricians, for instance.
The metro area has the highest share of employment in financial services (8%) across the region, while the metro area is the least reliant on government jobs (15%).

Metro Washington avoided the net-negative years of business formation that plagued many metro areas in the difficult postpandemic period. That wave of new business formation drove net change back up to 1,770 — the second-strongest reading of the decade.
The gap between entries and exits is now narrowing again, with 2023 data showing entry declining and exits falling more slowly, suggesting the market may be settling back into a lower-growth equilibrium rather than sustaining the postpandemic surge.

A gap in minority business ownership relative to the share of the workforce persists in the region, although it is shrinking.
Richmond has the largest gap in minority business ownership share relative to worker share. While 38.7% of the workforce are minorities, 29.4% of business owners are minorities, a slight improvement from the previous year.
In Baltimore, 39.1% of workers are minorities, and 35.6% of business owners are minorities, representing the smallest gap in the region. The gap decreased in 2024 from 5.9 percentage points to 4.4 percentage points.
Washington reports the largest minority work share (47.1%) and largest minority business owner share (41.1%) in the region. The region’s minority worker-business owner gap also shrank marginally in 2024.

Among the working age population, metro Baltimore's overall labor force participation rate has steadily risen over the past five years, reaching 84% in 2024.
Rates have improved the most among those with a high school degree and those who never completed high school, although participation in the workforce remains significantly lower than among those who have completed college.

Metro Washington stands out as the most highly educated area in the region: Over half of adult residents hold a bachelor's degree or higher (55.5%), compared to 45.3% in Baltimore and 42.9% in Richmond — a substantial gap driven largely by the region's concentration of federal government and professional services jobs.
Washington has a notably compressed "middle" of the education spectrum. Only 5.5% of residents fall into the "some college, no degree" category, the lowest of the three metros by a wide margin. Baltimore and Richmond both hover around 17–18% in that group, suggesting Washington draws more residents who complete degrees once they start them.
Graduate-degree attainment is where the metros diverge most sharply. Washington's 27.9% graduate/professional degree share is about 6–10 points higher than Baltimore (21.3%) and Richmond (17.5%), suggesting the DC metro doesn't just attract more college graduates — it attracts an outsized share of advanced-degree holders.

Metro Washington has a larger share of population who are at least bachelor’s degree recipients (55.5%) than similar metropolitan areas, including San Francisco (53.8%), Boston (53%), and Seattle (48.5%).
Baltimore (45.3%) lands closer to cities such as New York (45%) and Atlanta (43.9%) on postsecondary education outcomes.
Richmond’s share of individuals with at least a bachelor’s degree (42.9%) falls just under Philadelphia (43.3%) and Chicago (43.1%) and narrowly surpasses Charlotte (41.5%) and Dallas (41%).

In Virginia in 2024, the most commonly awarded degrees from postsecondary institutions were: business (16%), health professions (14%), and and computer sciences (7%).
The overall share of degrees awarded across these disciplines has remained relatively unchanged over the past decade, although computer sciences recorded a notable increase from 4% of total degrees to 7% over that time.

Transit ridership on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA), the largest transit system in the region by trip volume, continues to climb back to pre-pandemic levels. More than 308 million trips were taken in the 12 months ending in February 2026, growing 8% from a year earlier.
Weekend ridership growth has been robust and is close to full recovery, but weekday commuting is still not fully back.
While bus ridership rebounded more quickly post-pandemic, its growth has hit a speedbump – down over 4% relative to a year ago. Meanwhile, rail ridership growth continues at a steady pace, up by more than 18% relative to the year prior.

Nearly 59 million trips were taken on Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) services in the 12 months ending February 2026 – still about 20 million fewer than before the pandemic.
Growth stagnated for MTA over the past year, with total 12-month ridership declining slightly from a year earlier.
Bus remains the backbone of the system, accounting for over 80% of total MTA ridership.

Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC), while a smaller transit agency by passenger trip volume compared to others in the region, is the only to fully recover and surpass pre-pandemic ridership. Ridership over the past 12 months grew by just under 1%, reaching a total of 11.7 million trips taken.
Post-pandemic ridership recovery and growth have allowed GRTC to surpass its pre-pandemic ridership high by 2.6 million rides as of January 2026.

MARC commuter rail has recovered more than half of its annual peak ridership volume since the pandemic, exceeding 5.3 million passenger trips in the 12-months ending February 2026.
Pre-pandemic passenger trip volume peaked in February 2020 at just under 9.5 million trips. By March 2021, 90% of ridership was lost due to the pandemic and under 1 million passenger trips were reported.

Commuter rail systems MARC and VRE saw the largest growth in year-over-year ridership over the past 12 months amid a growing return to work trend, especially among federal employees.
Baltimore’s MTA ridership stagnated over the last year compared to other transit agencies, with a slight decline in ridership over the year.
WMATA continues to experience solid ridership growth, with 8.3% more rides occurring in the 12 months ending February 2026 compared to the prior year.

Commute times for all three jurisdictions in the region have risen steadily since the pandemic, as workers have slowly transitioned back to in-person work. The longest average commute time in the region is in metro Washington at nearly 34 minutes – 6.6 minutes longer than the U.S. average.
Baltimore sits almost exactly in between Washington and the U.S. average in commute time, averaging about 30 minutes for a one-way commute in 2024, 3.1 minutes more than the U.S. average.
Richmond is the only metro area in the region to have an average commute time that is faster than the U.S. average, although only by one minute.

55% of people who work in metro Washington have a commute longer than 30 minutes – a share just below New York City.
Baltimore (46%) and Richmond (36%) have considerably smaller shares of workers with long commutes. Both metro areas have less than 50% of workers with at least a 30-minute commute.
Richmond the only metro area that has a lower share than the U.S. overall (39%).

Driving alone is the most common form of commuting in metro Baltimore at 68%.
Since 2021, the share of commuters who work from home has dropped seven percentage points as employers encourage employees to return to the office, now sitting at just over 15% of workers.
A small but increasing number of commuters are carpooling to work. The only means of transportation, apart from work from home, that noticeably increased by at least .5% compared to 2019.

More than 70% of commuters drive alone in metro Richmond, the highest share in the region.
Working from home remains the second most common commute pattern, for16% of residents.
Public transportation is the second least frequently used means of transportation in Richmond, used by just 1.3% of workers.

Commuters in metro Washington are the least likely to drive alone to work (57%), although that mode remains by far the most common.
The region’s largest share of people who work from home (15%) is in metro Washington. The share has continued to decline after peaking at 33% in 2021 amid the pandemic.
Public transportation and carpooling are each used by about 9% of commuters. The largest share of public transportation used in the region by a considerable amount.

New privately-owned residential construction, as measured by authorized building permits, remains near its lowest level in the last five years in metro Washington. Roughly 11.7K fewer units were authorized in the 12 months ending in January 2026 relative to the metro area’s recent peak in late 2022, reflecting a tighter financial environment for new housing development.
The number of new housing units approved for construction in metro Richmond rose slightly over the past year – the only part of the region to experience overall growth in permitting. Nearly 1.5K permits were issued in January 2026 alone, the second highest monthly total in the past five years.
Metro Baltimore continues to produce the fewest new housing units in the region, trailing metro Richmond despite having a population that is 1.5M people larger.

The number of households considered rent-burdened (spending more than 30% of income on housing) continues to increase across the region.
Metro Richmond reports 91,233 rent-burdened households as of 2024, a 5% increase from 2023, and a 12% increase over the last five years. As Richmond experiences some of the fastest population growth in the region, the increased demand for housing has led to more rent-burdened households.
Metro Baltimore is the only metro area in the region to decrease the number of rent-burdened households from 2023 to 2024, although only by 1% (less than 2,000 households). However, a 12.6% increase in rent-burdened households over the last five years indicates growing cost of living challenges.
Metro Washington showed an increase in total rent-burdened households of 1.1% (about 4,000 additional households) from 2023 to 2024.

52.1% of Baltimore and Richmond households are rent-burdened, similar to other major metropolitan areas such as Dallas (52.5%) and New York (52%). These cities only marginally outpace the national rate of 51.8%.
48.4% of Washington residents are rent-burdened, lower than the national average and more akin to areas like San Francisco (48.1%) and Charlotte (49.9%).

The FHFA House Price Index is a broad economic measure of the movement of single-family house prices in the United States, measuring average price changes in sales or refinancings on the same properties.
Following rapid home price appreciation in the wake of the pandemic, year-over-year price increases have slowed across the U.S. and regionally.
Home price growth has tended to be slower in metro Washington and Baltimore than the country overall in recent years, while Richmond has more closely mirrored the overall U.S. trend.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, home prices nationally rose by 3.4% over the year, slightly faster than in DC and the MD suburbs (2.9%) and Baltimore (2.8%). Richmond rose at a marginally faster pace of 4.3%

Despite being the most expensive housing market in the region, metro Washington homes for sale are considerably less expensive than other major metros in California and the Northeast. In February 2026, the median listing price for a home was $550K.
Other parts of the region, however, remain competitive with more affordable housing markets. Metro Richmond ($438K) was on par with other fast-growing southern economies like Charlotte, Dallas, and Atlanta.
Metro Baltimore had the lowest-priced housing in the region, with median listing price of $350K in the latest month, cheaper than all major peer metro areas.