Orlando Market Commentaries are a series of timely analyses produced by the Orlando Economic Partnership’s Research & Strategy team. Commentaries are typically associated with a major data release or cover areas key to advancing the Partnership’s goal of Broad-based Prosperity®.

New GDP estimates suggest the Orlando region’s economy surpassed $200 billion in 2023.
Orlando was the sixth fastest-growing large economy in the U.S., with all local counties also seeing growth above the national rate.
GDP growth remains an imperfect measure of economic health that can nevertheless help understand the drivers of our economy.

New estimates released by the federal government in early December indicate approximately $20 billion was added to the Orlando MSA’s GDP in 2023 as the region became a $200 billion economy. Orlando joined just 26 other regions in the U.S. in reaching that milestone, registering a current-dollar GDP of more than $217 billion – bigger than 17 U.S. states.

Florida’s Fastest-Growing Economy

In growth terms, the Orlando MSA’s real GDP (adjusted for inflation) expanded by 4.5 percent in 2023 – considerably higher than the 2.9 percent growth experienced by the wider U.S. economy. It was the region’s third consecutive year of robust growth following a pandemic-related decline in 2020, leaving the economy some 19 percent larger than in 2019. Many of the nation’s 384 metropolitan areas saw GDP growth slow in 2023 as the impact of a post-pandemic bounce waned.

Orlando was once again Florida’s fastest-growing large economy in 2023. Florida’s other major regions - Tampa (4.3 percent), Jacksonville (4.3 percent), and Miami (4.0 percent) - all likewise exceeded the U.S. rate but by lesser margins than Orlando. Among the 30 most populous regions in the country, Orlando was the sixth fastest-growing economy but the fastest-growing in nominal terms (inflation in Florida was among the highest in the country in 2023). The list of fastest-growing large economies in 2023 broadly reflects the ongoing migration of people and businesses to Southern states, as well as growth of the tech industry in Seattle.

At the county level, all four local counties experienced growth in 2023 above the national rate of 2.9 percent. Lake, Osceola and Orange each placed in the top third of the more than 3,100 counties in the U.S.

Outpacing the Nation

All but two industries (information and manufacturing) saw stronger growth in Orlando than in the U.S. in 2023. Sustained expansion of Orlando’s business base drove particularly strong local performance in business services and wholesale trade, while ongoing population growth ensured important pockets of strength continued in the region’s real estate (captured under financial activities) and healthcare industries.

A Manadate for Action

With a stated mission of broad-based prosperity, the Orlando Economic Partnership has long recognized that true economic health lies not in growing the total value of all goods and services produced in the region (the technical definition of GDP) but in the ability of all residents to share in that growth.

Still, analysis of the region’s GDP affords us the opportunity to identify the industries that are growing the most and therefore most likely to generate new opportunities for residents.

In this context, it is difficult to ignore that Orlando’s expansion continues to be led by industry groups that grow alongside the region’s population and a strong national economy: retail, healthcare, real estate, and leisure & hospitality. In 2023, these four sectors accounted for 44% of the Orlando region’s economy but 61% of economic growth.

In 2025, the Orlando Economic Partnership will continue to develop a new 20-year vision, with community support and engagement, that will reduce our exposure to downturns by establishing Orlando as a go-to location for businesses, talent, and investment. The vision will articulate the bold moves necessary to forever change Orlando's trajectory and stimulate sustainable, non-organic growth in Orlando's GDP - even if the measure itself is imperfect.