"The fact that the GDP of individual US states is larger than that of many countries should not come as a surprise. Their surface area often exceeds even the size of a medium-sized country. However, is it possible for a single district of New York to have a GDP higher than the whole of Poland?" writes Marcin Lipka, Conotoxia Senior Analyst.
Manhattan is one of five New York City districts. It is also known as the world's capital of finance and entertainment and is home to many international corporations and institutions. Manhattan's area is less than 60 square kilometres. This is only slightly over 10% of Warsaw's area (517 sq. km - GUS data). If Manhattan was a part of the Polish capital, it would be the third-largest district.
Generous wages
According to the US Census Bureau, there are 1.66 million people living in the centre of New York City, with many more people working there. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for Q1 published in the second half of September showed that employment in New York's most well-known district amounts to 2.45 million people.
In addition, New York skyscrapers, often with a view of Central Park, offer the highest salaries in the USA. BLS data shows that their average wage in Q1 was 3,087 USD per week. This gives more than 12,000 USD each month.
The average of 12,000 USD for a place like Manhattan does not accurately reflect the actual earnings of most of the people employed there due to strong wage differences. This is proven by data from particular industries. The monthly salary of hotel or restaurant employees is around 2.7 thousand USD. Employees in the education sector receive just over 4 thousand USD gross, and in trade and transport sector salaries fluctuate around 6 thousand USD before taxes, health insurance and pension contributions.
As befits the centre of finance, by far the highest salaries are in financial services. The average wage of 380 thousand people employed there is almost 38 thousand USD every month. This group, in particular, inflates the level of wages, which oscillates around 6-10 thousand USD (business services, freelance work, construction, telecommunication and IT and the public sector).
Manhattan with GDP much higher than Poland as a whole
Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that wages in the United States represent about 43% of GDP. This is more or less similar to the result recorded in the European Union, for example.
Since the total annual wages for employees in Manhattan is almost 400 billion USD, it means that the GDP of the central district of New York may even exceed 900 billion USD. In comparison, Poland's GDP is less than 2 trillion PLN, i.e. about 540 billion USD. As a result, the sum of goods and services produced annually by one small district of New York is much greater than the GDP of the whole of Poland.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to find data on the GDP of individual Warsaw districts, but for the entire capital, it amounts to 55 billion EUR (Eurostat data for 2015), i.e. 63 billion USD. To comfort you, Warsaw's GDP is about as much as Burma (66 billion - according to the IMF).
