I love to travel! I also enjoy learning about new places, the history of those places, the economy, the people that live there now and the people that were there first. Our trip to California prompted me to Google several things about California. A few facts Papa and I learned over the past week:
- California is currently the world's fifth largest economy, according to the US Department of Commerce. Its 2017 Gross State Product was $2.747 trillion, surpassing the United Kingdom's $2.625 trillion GDP, and trailing Germany, Japan, China, and the United States (without California). Texas is the next highest producing state with a GSP of $1.696 trillion.
- California is the nation's leading state in cash farm receipts and produced 13% of the US total in 2015. California's farm cash receipts in 2015 were $47 billion, $20 billion more than the second highest ranked state, Iowa. (Texas, Nebraska, and Minnesota rounded out the top five). Nearly 27% of California's 77,500 farms generated sales over $100,000 (20% is the national average). California produced 20% of the nation's milk in 2015 and its dairy industry employs over 400,000 people.
- According to the USGS, California was the fourth largest producer of nonfuel minerals in 2016. Its unique contribution is boron, for which it is the only producing state in the US. The US and Turkey lead the world in boron production, with California's contribution signicant. Boron;s primary use is in glass and ceramics, where it helps the glass or ceramic survive intense heat. We drove past the town of Boron, California, which prompted my research. The four states producing more minerals are: 1 - Nevada (gold), 2 - Arizona (copper and molybdenum), 3 - Texas (various minerals used in construction of buildings).
- California is home to some of the largest publicly traded companies in the US and the world, Apple, McKesson, Chevron, Wells Fargo, Alphabet, Intel, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Oracle, Google, Facebook, Qualcomm, Amgen, Visa, Farmer's Insurance Exchange, PayPal, and more.
- California is the largest state by population, with 39.54 million (2017).
- California has the largest number of universities of any US state, with 400.
- California has 840 miles of coastline.
- California has the lowest and highest points in the continental US, 282' below sea level in Death Valley and 14,494' Mt. Whitney.
- Native people lived in Californa for thousands of years. In 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo led the first European expedition to what is now California.
