Federal Data Show Rutherford County Lagging Nearby Economies

New federal numbers show a big difference in how the economies of Rutherford, McDowell, and Buncombe counties are doing.

The numbers come from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, or BEA. The agency measures the value of goods and services produced in every county. That number is called gross domestic product, or GDP.

Think of GDP as the size of a county’s economic pie. It includes things made in factories, services provided by businesses, health care, construction, retail sales and other economic activity.

In 2024, Rutherford County’s economy was worth about $1.92 billion, after adjusting for inflation. It grew 1.5% from the year before.

Nearby McDowell County had a slightly larger economy at $2.18 billion. More importantly, McDowell’s economy grew 7.1% in one year — much faster than Rutherford’s.

Buncombe County, which includes Asheville and has many more people, had a much larger economy at about $16.4 billion. It grew 2.7%. But county size does not tell the whole story.

One way to make a fairer comparison is to divide economic output by the number of people who live there.

Rutherford County produced about $29,297 in economic output per person in 2024. That ranked Rutherford 75th out of North Carolina’s 100 counties.

McDowell County produced about $48,195 per person, ranking 23rd statewide. Its output per person rose 6.3% in one year.

Buncombe County produced about $58,723 per person, ranking 10th in North Carolina.

That means Rutherford produced only about 61% as much economic output per person as McDowell and about half as much as Buncombe.

Those numbers are not paychecks. Someone living in McDowell County does not automatically earn $48,195, for example. GDP measures what the whole local economy produces, not what an individual worker earns.

The three counties also depend on different kinds of businesses.

Manufacturing is especially important in McDowell County. Factories produced about $1.18 billion of McDowell’s economic output in 2024 — more than half of the county’s total GDP.

Manufacturing was also Rutherford County’s largest industry, but it produced about $303 million — far less than McDowell’s manufacturing sector. Government was Rutherford’s second-largest sector, followed by education, health care and social services.

Buncombe County has a different economy. Its largest sector was real estate and rentals, followed by education and health care, and professional and business services.

The longer-term numbers may be even more important.

Rutherford County had about $1.89 billion in real GDP in 2001. More than two decades later, it was $1.92 billion. In other words, after accounting for inflation, Rutherford’s economy is only slightly larger than it was in 2001.

McDowell went from about $1.86 billion in 2001 to $2.18 billion in 2024, despite several years of major ups and downs.

Buncombe grew much more. Its economy increased from about $9.3 billion in 2001 to $16.4 billion in 2024.

The takeaway: All three counties are different, but Rutherford stands out for slower long-term economic growth.

McDowell now has a larger economy despite being another rural western North Carolina county, and its economy grew more than four times faster than Rutherford’s in 2024. Its economic output per person is also about $18,900 higher.

For Rutherford County, the numbers raise a basic economic development question: What will it take to grow the size of the local economic pie?

That could mean attracting new businesses, helping existing companies expand, adding higher-paying industries and creating more economic activity from each worker and business already here.