Historical Comparison

Topic Box from the 2006 Sixth Annual Benchmark Report

Description:
These figures illustrate data from 1971 through 2005 for the first three Core Targets: economic growth, standard of living, and jobs. Two interesting facts are revealed in this long-term analysis. First, BC's performance on growth in real GDP per capita and real personal disposable income per capita deteriorated in the 1980s, and was especially weak in the 1990s. Second, BC's performance has been especially weak relative to the national average on these two core indicators, though importantly BC has been ahead of the national average for growth in real GDP per capita since 2002 and BC's real PDI grew faster than the national average in 2004 and 2005. Taken together, this presentation suggests BC experienced a long period of structural decline, though there is noteworthy improvement in recent years. The last time BC was ahead of the national average on both of these important indicators was 1987.

Core Target 1: Economic Growth
Average annual growth in real GDP per capita in BC was 2.6% during the 1970s, 0.9% in the 1980s and 0.6% in the 1990s. In 1970, BC's real GDP per capita was $20,906. It grew by 28.6% to $26,886 in 1980, declined by 1.5% to $29,088 in 1990, grew by 6.5% to $30,983 in 2000 and grew by 10.4% to $34,199 in 2005.

British Columbia's average annual growth was 93.1% of Canada's in the 1970s, 54.2% in the 1980s, 34.1% in the 1990s, and so far this decade, has been 30.8% higher than the Canadian average. In 1970, BC real per capita GDP was $3,457 higher than the Canadian level. The difference was roughly the same ($3,232) in 1980, but had fallen to $1,457 by 1990. The BC advantage fell to $11 in 1996 and then turned negative to such a degree that BC's real GDP per capita was $2,608 below the national average in 2001, although the gap has narrowed by $932 to $1,676 in 2005 following better than national average BC growth in every year since 2002.

Core Target 2: Standard of Living
Average annual growth in real PDI per capita in BC was 5.2% during the 1970s, 0.6% in the 1980s, negative 0.4% in the 1990s, and 1.5% between 2000 and 2005. In 1970, BC's real PDI per capita was $11,596. It grew by 66.1% to $19,261 in 1980, a further 5.3% to $20,274 in 1990, shrank by 4.0% to $19,459 in 2000, and grew by 7.8% to $20,983 in 2005.

British Columbia's average annual growth in real PDI per capita was 31.6% greater than Canada's average annual growth in the 1970s, was only 46.1% of Canada's average annual growth in the 1980s and shrank during the 1990s. British Columbia's average growth has been 5.9% higher than the national average so far this decade.

In 1970, BC real PDI per capita ($11,596) was essentially the same as the Canadian level ($11,498). British Columbia had strong growth in real PDI per capita in the 1970s and the $98 difference present in 1970 grew to $2,318 by 1980. This shrank to $1,204 by 1990 and to $222 in 1997. From 1998 through 2004 BC's real PDI per capita was below the Canadian average and the gap grew such that BC's level was $571 below the national average in 2003. The gap shrank to $479 in 2004 and to $293 in 2005 due to strong economic growth in BC.

Core Target 3: Jobs
In contrast to its performance on the other economic core targets, BC's performance on the employment rate shows some improvement since the 1970s and slight deterioration over the 1990s. The average employment to population ratio in BC was 65.1% between 1976 and 1980, 66.5% in the 1980s and 69.9% in the 1990s.

From 1976 through 1990, the national average and BC's indicator values moved more or less in unison and were never further than 5.2% (3.7 percentage points) apart. In the 1990s, BC's ratio remained relatively flat while Canada's dipped and returned such that by 1998, Canada's ratio was above BC's. British Columbia's employment rate has shown strong improvements in recent years and its average rate for 2000 through 2005 (70.3%) is even stronger than the average in the 1990s (69.9%).