Economy

According to a2zdirectory, the economic, financial and industrial center of the state is Baltimore. Agriculture and livestock together contribute about 0.9% of the state’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product), and employ about 53,600 people. Maryland has about 12,000 farms, which cover about 30% of the state. The main products grown or raised in the state are corn, soybeans, chickens, eggs, and milk. Forestry only accounts for 0.10% of the state’s GDP and employs approximately 1,000 people. Fishing represents only 0.04% of the state’s GDP and employs about 1,200 people. The total value of the catch is $ 56 million.

The manufacturing industry accounts for 8% of the state’s GDP and employs approximately 188 thousand people. The total value of manufactured goods in the state per year is $ 20 billion. The construction industry accounts for 6% of the state’s GDP and employs about 204 thousand people. Mining accounts for 1% of the state’s GDP and employs approximately 1,200 people.

Services contribute 25% of the state’s GDP, and employ more than 1.2 million people. Maryland is a great financial center. Financial and real estate services account for 21% of the state’s GDP and employ about 250,000 people. Public services account for 17% of the state’s GDP and employ more than 516 thousand people. Wholesale and retail trade contribute 15% of the state’s GDP and employ more than 636 thousand people. Transportation, telecommunications and public utilities account for 7% of the state’s GDP and employ about 136 thousand people.

About 60% of the electricity generated in the state is produced in coal-fired thermoelectric plants, 25% in nuclear power plants, and most of the rest is generated in hydroelectric plants or thermoelectric plants with oil or natural gas.

Education

Maryland’s first public school was founded in 1694. Prior to this date, only the children of the wealthiest families had access to education through the Catholic Church or private teachers. This first school became a Faculty in 1784.

In 1824, the Maryland government passed a law that required any urban area with more than 250 residents to have at least one school. The state began providing funds to cities so that they could defray the costs of creating and maintaining the public school system.

School attendance is compulsory for all children and adolescents over six years of age, until the conclusion of secondary education (baccalaureate) or up to sixteen years of age.

Maryland’s first institution of higher education, Washington College, was founded in 1782. Today, Maryland has 59 institutions of higher education, of which 30 are public and 29 are private.

The first libraries were built in Maryland in 1699, when a Catholic bishop had 30 religious libraries built in the colonial province of Maryland, and a downtown library in Annapolis. In 1885, Enoch Pratt began construction of a library system in Baltimore. He donated these libraries to the city, on the condition that they were open to the general public. This system was inaugurated the following year, being one of the first public municipal library systems in the country.

Transport

Since the early European colonization of the region, the Chesapeake Bay was a natural obstacle to transportation in the colonial province of Maryland. At the beginning of the 19th century, the first Ferry services were started, steamboats that traveled from one side of the bay to another, transporting cargo and passengers. In 1829, the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal was opened, connecting the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay.

The Baltimore International Airport is the main airport in Maryland. In 1828, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was inaugurated, the world’s first rail system to transport cargo and passengers on a single train.

Media

The Maryland Gazette was the first newspaper in Maryland, first published in Annapolis in 1727, running until 1734. It was one of the first newspapers published in the Thirteen Colonies. Currently, about 125 newspapers are published in the state, of which 15 are daily. More than 450 newspapers are printed in the state.

The world’s first telegraph line was opened in the state in 1844, between Baltimore and Washington, DC Maryland’s first radio station was founded in 1922, and the first television station was founded in 1947, both in Baltimore. Currently the state has 15 television channels and about 100 radio stations.