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What If California Was A Country? A Top 5 Global Economy
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Mar 31, 2025
California is the United State's most populous state and largest economy. It's home to some of the world's most valuable companies, such as Apple and Google. It is also home to most of the entertainment and music industry, and serves as the bread and fruit basket for the United States at large. Taken by itself, California is currently the world's 5th largest economy. So what if California was a country instead of a state?
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California is home to Silicon Valley and Hollywood
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Napa Valley and the Central Valley, and just generally world-famous beaches and mountains all around
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You would be hard-pressed to find another sub-national state in the world
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as powerful and culturally prominent as California. Despite this, California is still just a state within the larger United States
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But what if it was a country instead? Hello, and welcome to What If Geography, where we try and answer the great geographic
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what-if questions of the world. I'm your host, Jeff Gibson, and today we're talking about
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California as its own country. As the most populous state, California has the economic
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means, agricultural regions, and diverse population to make for a pretty convincing country
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But while the Golden State has a lot going for it, it also has quite a few acute issues that
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would cause quite a bit of problems. But before we get into that, let's dive into just a little
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bit of history. California has existed as a state only since 1850, but prior to that
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the general region that California exists in today has had a long and kind of tumultuous history
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You see, the history of California can really be broken out into five distinct periods
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One, the Native American period lasting from about 10,000 years ago until the year 1542
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2. The European Exploration Period from about 1542 to 1769 3. The Spanish Colonial and Religious Indoctrination Period from 1769 to 1821
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4. The Mexican State Period from 1821 to 1848 and 5. The current period where California is a state within the larger United States
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Each of these historical periods have contributed a significant amount of cultural heritage to the California we know today
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and unfortunately, in this video, we do not have time to explore each in great detail
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But just keep in mind that each of these periods has had a long-lasting effect on how California has developed over the decades
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And of course, it's important to recognize that the state we know today is the historic land of over 30 native Californian tribes
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And as with all indigenous tribes in the United States, these people were systematically and forcefully removed from their homes
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and placed into much smaller reservations. This period of time is commonly referred to as the California Genocide
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in which the native Californian population was reduced from about 150,000 in 1848
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to fewer than 16,000 in 1900. Now prior to California becoming a state
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it was a territory of Spain and then Mexico respectively. This history is partly why California, to this day
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continues to be heavily influenced by Mexican culture and the Spanish language in a way that few other states share
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Throughout its history as a state, California underwent multiple periods of explosive population growth
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This includes the California Gold Rush from 1848 to 1855, where people swarmed into the state in order to mine for gold
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Then there was the late 1800s period where California population officially surpassed 1 million people The post Depression period where American citizens flocked to California and the West at large for better opportunities
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And the post-World War II period where housing construction and GI loans lured millions of
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former soldiers and their families to the Golden State. Between 1870 and 1950, California went from being the 24th most populous state to the
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second most populous state. That's incredible growth. The modern history of California can be described as a series of booms with very few busts
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Time after time, California was able to seamlessly move from one economic generator to the next
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which fostered a pattern of growth that really no other states within the United States has seen
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Today, California is the largest and most culturally prominent state within the United States
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and this makes it pretty easy to think of it as its own country. But before we get into what California would look like as a country today
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if you're enjoying this video, now would be a great time to subscribe
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More fun What If Country videos are just one click away. Today, California is situated in the southwest corner of the contiguous United States
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and is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and Mexico to the south
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But while its longest border is shared with the state of Nevada, its most important is with Mexico
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This is because of the San Diego-Tijuana border crossing. Today, the border crossing is the busiest in the western hemisphere
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with approximately 120,000 vehicle crossings, 63,000 pedestrian crossings, and 6,000 truck crossings every single day
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In some ways, despite being part of two completely separate countries, the San Diego-Tijuana metro area
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is more connected to each other than to other cities of their own respective countries
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Of course, as its own country, every border crossing would become much more important
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So while today, the land borders shared with Arizona and Oregon are relatively benign
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additional infrastructure would be needed. and the two primary border entry points with Nevada would become much more complicated
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particularly in Lake Tahoe, where the resort town is literally divided in half by the border of California and Nevada
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And the border entry point along I-15 connecting Los Angeles to Las Vegas would also become much more complicated
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as Las Vegas would remain a huge destination for Californians driving to the city for vacation
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In terms of size, California would not necessarily be a small country, but it also wouldn't be amongst the largest
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California today is currently just about 164,000 square miles and is the third largest state in the United States
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just behind Alaska and Texas. But if California was its own country
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it would be the 58th largest country in the world, just ahead of Paraguay and just below Iraq
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Despite its relatively small size, California would still have plenty of space
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for people who actually live there today and future generations of immigrants
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Today, California is home to just over 39 million people. As a state within the United States it currently ranks number one and not by a small margin either The next largest state within the country is Texas with about 29 million people As a country California would rank as the 36th most populous country in the world
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which is, oddly, right above Canada in terms of world population rankings
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This gives California a population density of about 251 people per square mile
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and would make California the 118th most densely populated country in the world
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just below Costa Rica and just above Malaysia. For demographics, California would be a very diverse country
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In fact, it's one of only five states within the United States that's majority non-white
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For California specifically, 39% of the population identifies as Hispanic or Latino
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35% identify as white, 15% Asian or Pacific Islander, 5% Black, and less than 1% Native American
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Linguistically, English remains the primary language across the state, but California also has a huge Spanish-speaking population
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It's currently estimated that over 10 million people within California speak Spanish at home
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That's about a quarter of the population at large and explains why there's such a mix of English
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and Spanish throughout the state, much of this within the cities that exist closest to the Mexico border
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Speaking of cities, California is home to many of the current United States
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largest and most prominent cities. Los Angeles is currently the second largest city
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within the US and would be the largest city in the country of California with almost 4 million people
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The metropolitan area of Los Angeles, which includes Orange County, is home to over 13 million people
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Other major metropolitan areas include the San Francisco metro area with about 4.7 million people
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the Riverside metro area with about 4.5 million people, San Diego metro area with about 3.3 million people
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Sacramento metro area with 2.3 million people, San Jose metro area with over 2 million people
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and the Fresno metro area with about 1 million people. For the capital, California would likely keep Sacramento
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as it already has all of the political infrastructure that would be needed to keep the country running
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In terms of subnational regions within the country of California, being such a large state
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California would likely need to be divided in order to maintain local but higher level management systems
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Currently, there's already a cultural divide between Southern California and Northern California
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In fact, in 2016, there was a proposed ballot initiative to split the state into six separate states altogether
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Those regions are Jefferson in the North, North California, Silicon Valley, Central California, West California, and South California
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This ballot initiative failed, and for good reason, but it does raise the issue of local governance structures that California as a country would need
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particularly with respects to each region's primary economic generators. California has a roaring economy and is home to both the entertainment industry in Los Angeles and the tech industry in the Bay Area
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Because of this California economy ranks amongst the largest in the world As of 2021 California gross domestic product was trillion annually the largest GDP within the United States and fully responsible for one of the US GDP
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According to the World Bank, if California was a country, it would be the fifth largest economy
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in the world, just above the United Kingdom and just below Germany. That's an incredible economy
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And much of this is due to the fact that California is home to many of the most valuable
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corporations in the world. Apple, Alphabet, and Meta are all based in the Bay Area. Additionally
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Disney, Universal Studios, Paramount Studios, Warner Brothers, and Netflix are all based in
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California as well, giving California a major source of cultural dominance over the world
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In addition to the tech and entertainment industries, California is also home to a
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major source of agriculture. Currently, California is a bit of a bread and fruit basket for the rest
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of the United States, giving it a unique power over the United States. Today, California grows
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over 17 major crops, including fruits, grains, and manufacturing crops such as cotton. It's also a
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major exporter of dairy, poultry, and beef. While this is all well and good for California's economy
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it's all at considerable risk because of some acute natural disasters. California as a country would face some considerable climate change-related natural
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disasters. Today, California is undergoing one of the worst droughts it has ever had to deal with
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And unfortunately, California gets a significant source of its water from outside its border
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via the Colorado River, which itself is at risk due to serious drought
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If California were to become its own country, figuring out its water issues would become a very serious national security concern
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Fortunately, California happens to have a considerable coastline, which means desalination is a possibility, albeit a very expensive one
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In addition to and exacerbated by the drought, California currently has to deal with annual major wildfires
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These wildfires have caused considerable damage to the state and will remain as a major hurdle for California to deal with as its own country
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And of course, California is home to the San Andreas Fault Line. Stretching from Southern California to Northern California
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the fault line has caused major damage in both the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles region
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In 1996, the Northridge earthquake caused billions of dollars in damage to Los Angeles
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Luckily for California at the time, the federal government of the United States paid for most of the repairs to the city
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As its own country, California would need to deal with all of these natural disasters by itself
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and that would be a huge challenge. California would make for a very impressive country
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Its population is diverse and unique. Its economy, powerful and wealthy. But despite all of this
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California has very serious and unique issues that would be a challenge to take on by itself
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That's not to say California couldn't do it, but it would not be easy. I hope you enjoyed
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today's episode on California as its own country. If you did, please subscribe to my channel. And if
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you want to watch more of my What If Geography videos, you can do so here. Thanks for watching
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See you next time
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