Useful Stats: Change in Per Capita Income by State: 1999-2004

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) recently released its preliminary 2004 figures for per capita income, revealing average income received by persons grew by 4.7 percent between 2003 and 2004. The change in income was not evenly distributed across the country. The BEA explains financial activities were a particularly strong accelerating force in the Northeast (New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Delaware), construction in the West (Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada and Utah) and professional services more broadly across the country.

Tech-based economic development practitioners and wise elected officials will note, as well, one-year change in per capita income is not a terribly useful measure for programs requiring longer time periods to yield results. The statistic is relatively volatile between single years, affected by major events such as the dot-com crash and the subsequent recession.

SSTI has prepared a table presenting change in per capita income over the five-year period 1999-2004 and ranking the states using constant 1999 dollars.The result reveals only a 3.98 percent increase, on average, for the nation as a whole. The District of Columbia and seven EPSCoR states - North Dakota, Wyoming, Vermont, South Dakota, Louisiana, Maine and West Virginia - were the only states to post double-digit increases for the period. With the exception of Wyoming, these states remain below the 2004 national average for per capita income of $32,937.

SSTI's 2004 table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/040405t.htm

Trends in the five-year change in income may also be a useful measure, as it reveals a state's progress toward economic prosperity for its residents relative to other states and the national average. With this in mind, SSTI also draws readers to the table we prepared last year reporting change in per capital income for the five years 1998-2003: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/050304t.htm

The BEA data is available at: http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/newsrel/SPINewsRelease.htm