Nation States!

(click image for larger view)

Here is a great US map showing countries whose GDP is approximately equivalent to each US state. It puts a lot into perspective when thinking about why the US is so economically dominant in the world economy.

Another interesting perspective would be to compare the population of each of these countries to each of the states. My guess is that would be even more telling...

The Big Picture notices:

Notable omissions: U.K., Japan, Germany, China, Russia, Italy.

I cannot vouch for the precision of this, but by eyeball, it looks about right.

Looks about right to me too.