[1][2] This is mostly due to decades of white flight[3] The 2019 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of St. Louis was $152.4 billion.
[8] The Swedish furniture retailer IKEA opened a 21-acre complex in the Central West End, including a 380,000 square foot store that added approximately 300 jobs.
[12] St. Louis is also the nation's third-largest railroad hub, moving everything from fertilizer, gravel, crushed stone, prepared foodstuffs, fats, oils, nonmetallic mineral products, grain, alcohol, and tobacco products to motorized vehicles and parts.
BJC also cooperates with Washington University School of Medicine, a center of medical research that is adjacent to Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
As of 2020, the St. Louis area is home to eight Fortune 500 companies: Centene, Emerson Electric, Reinsurance Group of America, Edward Jones Investments, Graybar Electric, Olin, Ameren, and Post Holdings.