Prosperity varies from U.S. city to city: think tank

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Large U.S. cities are economically strong -- generating 75 percent of the country's gross domestic product -- but only one-fifth enjoy a mix of healthy productivity, narrow wage inequality and environmental sustainability, according to a survey released on Thursday.

Portland, Oregon, and Boise, Idaho, are among cities achieving higher levels of prosperity, according to the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution, which spent a year analyzing the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States.

But disparities remain within and among cities, and "virtually no metropolitan area can be said to have secured true prosperity," the group said in its report.

The 20 most productive metropolitan areas generated about $110,000 worth of gross domestic product per job, while the 20 least productive produced only $71,000 worth of goods and services, the survey found.

At the same time, the collective GDP per person was $57,800 in the 20 cities with the highest standard of living, such as Boston, Dallas, Denver and Philadelphia. The per capita GDP was slightly more than half that level at $30,700 in the 20 cities with the lowest rankings. They included Akron, Ohio, El Paso, Texas, and Fresno, California.

The survey also found that Hartford, Connecticut, and Portland, Maine, were among cities with the smallest income differences between top earners and bottom ones, while Houston, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles had some of the largest differences.

In weighing environmental sustainability, the survey considered how much carbon was emitted per person in each city. Columbus, Ohio, along with Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and St. Louis, Missouri, emitted around 1.9 times the amount of carbon as cities such as Chicago and San Francisco, the report said.

Across the map, one type of prosperity blooms while another shrivels, the think tank said, pointing to San Jose, California, as an example. The metropolitan area just south of San Francisco has the second-highest annual productivity growth rate, at 5 percent, but also contends with some of the worst wage inequality. The top 10 percent of workers earn 7.6 times as much as the bottom 10 percent.

The institution this week is hosting mayors and civic leaders from across the country to pressure presidential candidates to create policies that address problems unique to urban areas.

If 35 of the U.S. cities were treated as nations, they would rank among the world's largest 100 economies, officials at the gathering said, and their prosperity has tremendous influence on the well-being of the entire U.S. economy.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Dan Grebler)