While Wyoming’s gross domestic product fell during the pandemic-plagued 2020, Wyoming’s agricultural industry saw modest gains. Using Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data, a new report from the Wyoming Economic Analysis Division shows the agricultural industry in Wyoming grew 6% between 2019 and 2020. 

The report found that Wyoming experienced an overall decline in GDP of 8.3%, which was one of the steepest drops in the country, behind Hawaii and Alaska. In a news release Wednesday Wenlin Liu, chief economist at the Wyoming Economic Analysis Division, attributed the decline to the pandemic “due to government restrictions and demand reduction.” 

GDP is a measure of the value of the goods and services produced during a specific period. It’s often used as a metric of the strength and growth of an economy. 

Broken down by county, the BEA data shows that the GDP of Park County’s agricultural sector was $51.6 million in 2020, an increase of 12% from 2019. Big Horn County’s agriculture sector grew 16% in the same period, and Washakie increased 1.6%. Data isn’t available for Hot Springs County.

Park County’s GDP for all industries fell by 4.5%, the division report noted. 

The state’s overall mining sector, which includes oil and gas extraction, experienced a 25.7% decline in GDP, followed by a 16.4% drop in leisure and hospitality.

“States where the worst downfalls were reported tend to be those that rely heavily on industries that were hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 virus — energy and leisure and hospitality,” Liu said.

Nationally, the GDP declined by 2.2%, which was the steepest drop since World War II.