Director’s Message

In this issue of the Survey of Current Business, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) offers its annual report on the profitability for domestic nonfinancial corporations, for nonfinancial industries, and for 14 major nonfinancial industry sectors.

Separately, we present recently released statistics from BEA's Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account. The statistics cover both national and state-level estimates for 2020 and are presented by both activity and industry. Amid COVID-19 restrictions, the outdoor recreation economy contracted more sharply in 2020 than the overall U.S. economy.

Elsewhere, we highlight other updates from our Regional Economic Accounts. We look at personal income and gross domestic product (GDP) statistics by county for 2020. GDP decreased in U.S. counties in 2020, while personal income increased.

We also provide details on revisions to estimation methods and changes in presentation for BEA’s regional price parities (RPPs) back to 2008. These are the first major revisions to estimation methods since the RPPs were officially introduced in 2014.

Lastly, the “GDP and the Economy” article this month looks at the second estimate of GDP for the fourth quarter of 2021.