Study: Providence County leads GDP growth, Newport County tops for incoming investment

SMARTASSET, a financial services company, ranked Rhode Island's five counties according to gross domestic product growth, and Providence County came out on top. / COURTESY SMARTASSET
SMARTASSET, a financial services company, ranked Rhode Island's five counties according to gross domestic product growth, and Providence County came out on top. / COURTESY SMARTASSET

PROVIDENCE – When it comes to gross domestic product growth, it’s not a surprise that Providence County leads the state’s five counties with GDP growth of $1.1 billion, according to a SmartAsset study.
The financial services website said this week that it studied GDP growth over a four-year period, and also looked at new building permits, business growth (over the past three years) and municipal bonds per capita to evaluate incoming investments among the counties.
Providence County, the state’s largest county, had flat business growth, but had 1.6 new building permits per 1,000 homes and $3,165 in municipal bonds per capita.
Kent County was second for GDP growth at $317 million, and saw business growth decline 1.6 percent. Washington County was third for GDP growth at $254 million, and saw business growth dip 0.4 percent.
Newport and Bristol counties had the least GDP growth at $184 million and $83 million, respectively, but had the most business growth, at 0.1 percent and 1.6 percent.
The findings were part of a broader study by SmartAsset about areas with the most incoming investment.
When ranking incoming investment, Newport County takes over the top spot, helped by 3.2 new building permits per 1,000 homes, and $3,957 in municipal bond investment per capita. Providence County falls to second place, followed by Washington, Bristol and Kent counties in this ranking.
Nationwide, Williams, N.D., ranked first for incoming investment, with business growth of nearly 38 percent, GDP growth of $664 million, 61.5 new building permits per 1,000 homes and municipal bonds of $3,072 per capita.

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