It accounts for a seventh of the U.S. economy. If it were a country, the Southeast would rank as fourth-largest economy in the world and the fastest growing industrialized nation.
Southeast cities continue to boom.
The Southeast has attracted more new manufacturers in the 1990s than any other region of the nation. They've built more than 5,200 new plants in the region during the 1990s and more than 7,750 existing firms have chosen to expand facilities. The region has accounted for nearly half of all new foreign-owned factories established in the U.S. during the 1990s. And international investments have reached new highs. The Southeast led the nation in manufacturing job losses because of consolidations in the textile and apparel industry.