The Fragmented States of North America

What would the North American economy look like if every single state and province in the US, Canada and Mexico suddenly declared independence and turned into its own country? Most know that California would become the largest economic powerhouse in the region, but besides that it's not always obvious which state or province would stack up with another. To give some idea of how it would look I've put them all in a single chart below. The map on the right is also lacking colours and has been turned around in order to make the national borders we are otherwise used to as invisible as possible.

The list includes parts of the three countries that aren't officially provinces or states, since 1) if every province and state became independent they would have to govern themselves too, and 2) the largest part of Mexico (by GDP) is the Federal District, which is technically not a state either.

"Equivalent country" on the right is measured by GDP, and is very rough, obtained simply by selecting the nearest country below the state's GDP on this list, or the nearest country just above if they happen to be extremely close.

Rank	"Country" name	GDP ($million)	Population	Equivalent country
1	California	1,891,363	37,253,956	Canada
2	Texas	1,144,695	25,145,561	Mexico
3	New York	1,093,219	19,378,102	"
4	Florida	737,038	18,801,310	Turkey
5	Illinois	630,398	12,910,409	Switzerland
6	Pennsylvania	554,774	12,604,767	"
7	Ontario	513,052	13,210,667	Belgium
8	New Jersey	482,967	8,707,739	"
9	Ohio	471,264	11,536,504	"
10	Virginia	408,443	8,001,024	Austria
11	North Carolina	398,042	9,535,483	"
12	Georgia	395,194	9,687,653	"
13	Michigan	368,401	9,883,640	"
14	Massachusetts	365,182	6,547,629	South Africa
15	Washington	338,334	6,724,540	Iran
16	Maryland	286,797	5,773,552	Venezuela
17	Indiana	262,647	6,483,802	United Arab Emirates
18	Minnesota	260,692	5,303,925	"
19	Quebec	259,958	7,886,108	"
20	Arizona	256,364	6,392,017	"
21	Colorado	252,657	5,029,196	"
22	Tennessee	244,508	6,214,888	"
23	Wisconsin	244,370	5,686,986	"
24	Missouri	239,752	5,988,927	"
25	Connecticut	227,405	3,574,097	Hong Kong
26	Louisiana	208,377	4,533,372	Nigeria
27	Federal District	192,073	8,720,700	Philippines
28	Alberta	179,113	3,724,832	Pakistan
29	Alabama	169,856	4,779,736	Algeria
30	Oregon	165,648	3,831,074	"
31	South Carolina	159,647	4,625,364	"
32	British Columbia	158,616	4,383,800	Romania
33	Kentucky	156,553	4,339,367	Peru
34	Oklahoma	153,778	3,751,351	"
35	Iowa	142,282	3,046,355	New Zealand
36	Nevada	126,503	2,700,551	Qatar
37	Kansas	124,921	2,853,118	Kuwait
38	Utah	112,941	2,763,885	Bangladesh
39	Arkansas	101,818	2,915,918	Vietnam
40	District of Columbia	99,129	601,723	Morocco
41	Mississippi	95,905	2,967,297	"
42	Mexico State	86,656	14,349,700	Slovakia
43	Nebraska	86,439	1,826,341	"
44	New Mexico	74,801	2,059,179	Sudan
45	Nuevo León	67,002	4,041,300	"
46	Hawaii	66,431	1,360,301	"
47	Jalisco	66,260	6,540,700	"
48	West Virginia	63,344	1,852,994	Ecuador
49	Delaware	60,588	897,934	Croatia
50	New Hampshire	59,400	1,316,470	Oman
51	Idaho	54,005	1,567,582	"
52	Maine	51,293	1,328,361	Dominican Republic
53	Rhode Island	47,837	1,052,567	Slovenia
54	Alaska	45,709	710,231	Bulgaria
55	Chihuahua	41,095	3,274,700	Guatemala
56	Manitoba	40,892	1,232,654	"
57	Saskatchewan	40,080	1,049,701	Lebanon
58	Veracruz	38,415	6,980,900	Uzbekistan
59	South Dakota	38,308	814,180	"
60	Wyoming	37,544	563,626	Lithuania
61	Montana	35,954	989,415	"
62	Puebla	33,054	5,480,200	Kenya
63	Baja California	32,161	2,846,500	Ethiopia
64	North Dakota	31,872	672,591	"
65	Guanajuato	31,268	4,919,000	"
66	Coahuila	29,481	2,395,100	Panama
67	Tamaulipas	28,588	2,927,300	"
68	Nova Scotia	28,159	944,251	"
69	Sonora	25,908	2,262,700	Latvia
70	Vermont	25,438	625,741	"
71	New Brunswick	22,507	1098109	Tanzania
72	Newfoundland	19,226	1098109	Estonia
73	Michoacán	18,761	4,066,900	Ghana
74	San Luis Potosí	16,974	2,370,400	Afghanistan
75	Sinaloa	16,974	2,574,300	"
76	Querétaro	16,081	1,558,500	Zambia
77	Chiapas	14,294	4,329,700	Jamaica
78	Guerrero	14,294	3,196,100	"
79	Quintana Roo	14,294	1,023,500	"
80	Oaxaca	13,400	3,651,100	Iceland
81	Yucatán	12,507	1,714,100	Botswana
82	Morelos	11,614	1,637,400	Albania
83	Durango	11,614	1,449,100	"
84	Hidalgo	11,614	2,330,900	"
85	Aguascalientes	11,614	1,023,800	"
86	Tabasco	11,614	1,994,700	"
87	Campeche	10,720	720,900	Mozambique
88	Zacatecas	7,147	1,381,900	Haiti
89	Baja California Sur	5,360	477,200	Moldova
90	Nayarit	5,360	942,200	"
91	Colima	4,467	581,100	Kyrgyzstan
92	Tlaxcala	4,467	1,034,600	"
93	Prince Edward Island	3,996	1098109	Barbados
94	Northwest Territories	3,458	1098109	Suriname
95	Yukon Territory	1,445	1098109	Maldives
96	Nunavut	1,188	1098109	Djibouti

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21 April 2010: Mexican Space Agency now officially approved by Congress

Yeah! Today is a big day for a country that is a member of a group of countries that I believe should play a larger role in exploring space - countries that have a large enough economy and educated enough workforce that they should be playing a niche role in space exploration but for some reason or another (or no reason at all) just haven't done so. There are also countries like Canada of course that have a space agency, but one that is much, much smaller than it could be. Canada could easily up the budget for the CSA to a $1 billion and barely notice.

Anyway, back to Mexico. The article is in Spanish.

The Mexican Congress today approved the creation of the Mexican Space Agency (Agencia Espacial Mexicana, AEXA) with 280 votes in favour, two opposed and four abstentions, meaning it now only has to wait for final approval and publication by the government.

...

Congressman Reyes Tamez defended the utility of this body in Parliament, affirming that it would serve to consolidate the aerospace industry in the country, improve the formation of human capital and reduce the scientific gap between it and countries like the US, where $900 per person is spent on innovation development research, but only $14 per person in Mexico.

This per capita figure compared to the GDP per capita is where you can find out if a country is slacking in R&D or not. For example:

US $900 per person vs. Mexico $14 per person. GDP per capita: US $46443, Mexico $8040, thus 5.77 times Mexico. Even after accounting for the difference in income then Mexico spends 11 times less per capita than the US. Ergo, slacking.

Same with Canada. CSA = $373.5 million budget. NASA budget = $17.6 billion, thus 47.1 times the size. GDP per capita in Canada is slightly lower at $39217, and the population is 9.2 times less than the US, so Canada is slacking off at a rate of 4.3; i.e. Canada would need to increase the CSA's budget to $1.6 billion just to equal this. Plus, this is just to equal NASA, which is underfunded too.

No surprise then that Canada's role in the new plans for NASA is to do next to nothing.

The bad news about the Mexican Space Agency though is that the initial budget is unbelievably tiny. Ready for the amount? A mere $800,000. A single Falcon 1 launch is more than ten times that. So Mexico still gets the big slacker label along with Canada, but at least it has set up the initial framework for hopefully something more impressive in the future.

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Mexico very pleased with Korea's handling of new influenza outbreak

Mexico's currently having one of those "when times are tough you find out who your true friends are" moments, and one of the countries they're very grateful toward at the moment (along with the U.S. too) is Korea. Here's part of an article in Korean here that explains how.

Korean businesses in Mexico are smiling now. When the new strain of influenza emerged and countries around the world fell into a panic and began cancelling flights to Mexico and keeping Mexicans at a distance, the Korean government instead began sending relief aid, creating an atmosphere of friendship toward Korea and Korean businesses.

According to KOTRA on the 17th of May, Korean enterprises meeting with people in Mexico find people thanking them and saying how much they like Koreans, as well as giving them thumbs up on the street...the improvement in Korea's image in Mexico began on the 5th when the Korean government began providing half a million dollars of aid.

There's also a note at the end about trade with Turkey too as an example of how trade can increase when two countries suddenly begin to notice and like each other:

Through an increase in the Korean brand in Turkey the Korea-Turkey export volume went from $870 million in 2002 to $1.374 billion in 2003 (increase of 59%), and then a further increase of 71% to $2.356 billion in 2004.

More recent numbers can be found here. Exports from Korea to Turkey after this were:

2005: $2.8 billion
2006: $2.5 billion in the first 10 months, so probably $3 billion.

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