I read Dana McIntyre’s report a few weeks ago, in which Georgia agriculture commissioner, Tyler Harper, claimed that agriculture was a $84 billion economic driver, 17% of the state’s economy. He added that one in seven jobs or 330,000 Georgians are employed in agriculture. That seemed high to me, so I looked up the numbers.
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Georgia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2024 was $673,064 million annually. GDP measures the total value of all final goods and services produced in the state of Georgia in the first quarter of 2024. Of that, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting accounted for $3,621 million, or 0.5% of the state’s economy. The largest industry is manufacturing at 9.8 percent of GDP.
Farm proprietors’ employment was 34,525 and farm employment was 57,015 in 2022, the last year’s data is available. A further 26,121 workers were employed in forestry, fishing, and related activities, including support services, for a total of 117,661. Maybe the total employment the commissioner talked about included related industries such as food manufacturing or textile mills.
Locally, the Augusta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) GDP was $28.4 billion in 2022. Of that, $143 million was from agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting, or 0.5 percent, the same as the state. In the counties of the MSA that are in Georgia, it should be no surprise that the county with the highest share of GDP due to agriculture is Lincoln at 6.5 percent. McDuffie (3.7%) and Burke (1.4%) also have above-average agricultural sectors.
