America’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, which include Greater Des Moines, wield more economic clout than any other nation in the world, new numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show.

The gross metropolitan products (GMP) of the top 100 markets equal $10.56 trillion, or roughly twice the economic power of the most powerful foreign country, China.
The report analyzed GMP data for 2009, the latest year for which official figures are available. GMP is a local-level version of GDP. Both measures reflect the total output of goods and services within a given area in a given year.

The New York City area is the national leader, with GMP of $1.21 trillion. Next are Los Angeles at $731 billion and Chicago at $509 billion. Twenty-eight U.S. metros have gross metropolitan products of $100 billion or more, and another 23 are above $50 billion.

In Iowa, the Des Moines-West Des Moines metropolitan area ranked 59th in the top 100, with GMP of $37.7 billion. The Quad-Cities metropolitan area ranked No. 117 with $16.5 billion in GMP; Cedar Rapids ranked 139th with $13.3 billion in GMP.

The database ranks all 366 U.S. metropolitan areas according to 2009 GMP. The list can be re-sorted alphabetically by clicking on the metro area column.

A 2010 report from the International Monetary Fund  named China as the world’s second-biggest financial power with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $5.9 trillion. The World Bank  said in 2009 that Japan was No. 2 worldwide with GDP of $5.1 trillion. America’s GDP surpassed $14 trillion in 2009.

To view the article and the searchable spreadsheet, click here.