Quote:
Originally Posted by Minato Ku
This seems right.
According Brooking, the Business/Finance sector represented 47.3% of the metropolitan economy of Des Moines and 42.6% of Hartford.
The highest share in the USA and one of the highest in the world.
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Yes, Hartford has traditionally had a large insurance sector, and also, more recently, a large finance sector. Because it's adjacent to the NYC metropolitan area, and has lower taxes and overall costs, many finance back offices have relocated to the Hartford area.
Also, keep in mind that these GDP per capita numbers, while accurate, are a bit misleading, especially when you have concentrated activities like energy extraction and the like. Hartford, while technically "rich" is considered very affordable and modest compared to adjacent areas of coastal Connecticut in the NYC metropolitan area, even if the GDP per capita is similar or even higher.
Or New Orleans, and some of the Texas cities, have very high GDP per capita, because of the energy industry, but are not conventionally "rich" areas. New Orleans, in particular, feels like a below-average U.S. metropolitan area in terms of wealth, even though it's above-average in terms of GDP.
I suspect Des Moines is similar to Hartford. It's technically rich due to concentration of certain high value industries, but doesn't function as such.