[refurb]

You're using averages across all of the EU which includes both countries with a higher GDP per capita than the US and countries with lower GDP per capita.

Some of the examples I gave actually have a higher GDP per capita than the US.

[unionpivo]

Yes but most of such countries are small in population.

The biggest countries (by population): Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland

All have lover GDP.

The countries with higher GDP than US (according to wikipedia): Luxembourg (pop: 638,153 ), Ireland (pop: 5,006,061), Norway (not in EU, pop: 5,457,423), Switzerland (not EU, pop: 8,717,698)

I am sure if you just take the richest few states, they are also richer than average US