The United States GDP (Gross Domestic Product), like any nation's GDP, can be defined in three different ways, all of which are similar. First, it is the total expenditures for all goods and services produced by the nation in a year-long period. Second, it can be defined as the value added to input materials at every stage of production by all industries within the United States, plus taxes, minus government subsidies. The third definition is the sum of the income of everyone in the country. The GDP of a nation indicates its level of financial wealth and economic productivity.
The GDP of the US is the largest in the world, beating out the next largest, Japan, by a factor of more than three. Sometime around 2003, the US annual GDP exceeded $10 trillion US Dollars (USD) in 2009 dollars. In 2007, the it was estimated as $13.8 trillion USD. This translates to a GDP per capita of about $46,000 USD per working-age person in 2007, which ranks at about number ten in the list of all countries. In 2008, about 72% of the economic activity in the United States came from consumers — the rest is from industry and government. The primary industries are very diverse, and include consumer goods, lumber, mining, motor vehicles, aerospace, petroleum, telecommunications, chemicals, steel, electronics, food processing, and defense.
The annual growth of the United States GDP is approximately 10% per year, which is slightly lower than the global average, which was 11.99% in 2007. In contrast, the annual GDP growth of China in 2007 was 22.59%. In 2007, Armenia had GDP growth of 43.69%, the highest in the world. The economy of the United States includes a labor force of approximately 150 million, which is roughly half the population, with an employment rate fluctuating between 3% and 8%. In 2007, exports were $1.149 trillion, while imports were $1.968 trillion. The difference between exports and imports is known as the trade deficit.
Despite its great wealth, the government of the United States has extreme gross external debt, about $10.6 trillion USD as of late 2008. This works out to approximately 65% of GDP, or $37,316 USD per capita. In contrast, entry to the euro economic and monetary union requires countries to have a gross public debt of less than 3% of GDP. Besides its foreign debt obligations, the United States government also has about $59.1 trillion USD in long-term liabilities through unfunded Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare obligations, or $516,348 USD per household.
