US GDP in 2021

The economy in 2021

In 2021, the economy grew 6.06% in real terms, leaving total output at about $23.32T. That made it the 5th-fastest of the 65 years on record, and above the long-run average of 3%. The economy has grown to $30.77T by 2025 — roughly 1.3× its 2021 size in nominal terms. Spread across the population, output worked out to about $70,205 per person, against $90,027 today.

What happened in 2021

The economy rebounded strongly as it reopened from the pandemic.

Real GDP the economy grew 6.06% in 2021, up from -2.16% in 2020. That made it the 5th-fastest of the 65 years on record — a year of expansion — and above the long-run average of 3%.

How 2021 compared

Across the full 1960–2025 record, real growth has averaged about 3%, so 2021 ran above that long-run norm. Within the 2020s, growth averaged roughly 2.38%, and 2021 sat above its own decade. Five years earlier, in 2016, the economy grew 1.82%. The following year, 2022, growth slowed to 2.51%.

Output and jobs move together: when GDP stalls, recessions show up in jobs too. See what unemployment did in 2021 for the labor-market side of the same story.

Growth and prices are two sides of the same economy. See what inflation did in 2021 to round out the picture.

This is one year out of the whole story. For the complete history — every year since 1960, the fastest year and the deepest contraction, the decade-by-decade view, and what drives growth over time — see historical US GDP, 1960–today.