ENR’s analysis is designed to measure where construction activity is actually realized, rather than where projects are announced or permitted. To do that, the analysis relies on construction value added, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’ measure of construction’s contribution to gross domestic product by state.
The core dataset is the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’ Regional Economic Accounts, specifically the GDP by State and Industry tables for the construction sector. ENR used the BEA’s construction value added data reported in current dollars for calendar year 2024, the most recent year for which fully reconciled, economy-wide figures are available at the state level.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, GDP by State
BEA reports construction value added in millions of dollars. ENR converted those figures to billions of dollars for presentation and ranking purposes. No inflation adjustment was applied, as the analysis focuses on relative concentration within the same year rather than comparisons across long time horizons.
States were ranked by total construction value added for 2024. The Top 10 states were identified based solely on that metric. Percent shares cited in the article were calculated by dividing each state’s construction value added by the national construction value added total reported by BEA for the same year.
Construction value added reflects an industry’s contribution to gross domestic product and captures completed residential, nonresidential and infrastructure construction activity. Because it is derived from realized output rather than intent, it provides a comprehensive view of where labor, capital and materials were actually deployed during the year.
Because BEA state-level construction value added data are published annually with a reporting lag, ENR supplemented the 2024 baseline with directional indicators to assess whether concentration patterns appeared to persist into 2025. These indicators were used for context only and did not alter rankings.
The directional indicators included building permit valuation data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey, aggregated at the state level for 2023, 2024 and available months through the third quarter of 2025. Permit valuation was used as a proxy for near-term construction pipelines, recognizing that not all permitted projects proceed to completion.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey
ENR also examined state-level construction employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to observe whether labor demand was strengthening, stabilizing or moderating in states that already dominate completed construction activity.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, State and Metro Area Employment and Current Employment Statistics
These indicators were assessed qualitatively to determine whether leading states were broadly reinforcing, stabilizing or moderating relative to their 2024 construction output levels.
The analysis does not attempt to forecast future construction output, allocate activity by project type within states, or estimate construction starts. It also does not include partial-year value added estimates for 2025, as BEA does not publish state-level construction GDP on a quarterly basis.
A reader can replicate ENR’s rankings by downloading the BEA’s GDP by State and Industry construction tables for 2024, converting values from millions to billions of dollars, and ranking states by total construction value added. Directional confirmation can be reproduced by comparing those rankings with Census permit valuation trends and BLS construction employment data through the most recent available months.