Figure 1 below contains line charts for each personal and per capita personal income spanning all years in the new BEA data release with periods of recession overlaid.
Figure 1: Personal income and per capita personal income, 1969-2024
Personal income at the county level
At the county level, the true drivers of personal income can be more easily identified.
Regions like the West Coast, New England, and the Great Lakes, and parts of states like Arizona, Florida, and Texas, among others, have historically had high levels of personal income. Figure 2 below, which includes the past 10 years of available data, reflects these trends, with most of the top counties by personal income located within these regions across all years.
Note that estimates for 2024 reflect Connecticut county-level statistics using the state’s nine planning regions, which are compatible with Flourish, the mapping tool used, and are thus visible only for that year. Adding these counties for a single year may visually affect the quintiles used in the color scale and should be interpreted with caution.
Figure 2: County-level personal income in thousands of current USD, 2015-2024
At the county level, personal income across the nation has shown substantial growth over the last decade, though short-term volatility remains highly localized. Between 2015 and 2024, the past decade of available data, nearly every county in the U.S. experienced a net increase in personal income (99%; all but 20), ranging as high as 199% in Wasatch, UT.
However, looking at shorter time horizons reveals different economic stories, particularly in the Great Plains and the Midwest, just to the east of the Rocky Mountains. As seen in Figure 3 below, while the 10-year map, with percent changes from 2015 to 2024, indicates broad growth in nearly every county, the 3- and 5-year views (2022 and 2020 to 2024, respectively) instead show more red. Several counties in North Dakota, South Dakota, and surrounding states experienced personal income declines of up to 46%, many of which smoothed out in the 10-year data view.
Despite these localized short-term dips, the overall national trend remains positive. The 5-year map shows that even with the economic disruptions of the early 2020s and the pandemic-induced recession, the vast majority of the country maintained a positive growth trajectory, with the top-performing counties achieving a maximum 5-year increase of 105%.
Figure 3: Percentage change in county-level personal income, select periods from 2015-2024
Per capita personal income at the county level
Personal income is a metric known to be particularly skewed towards high earners, leaving numbers to often appear inflated compared to reality for most individual Americans. One way to account for this is to standardize personal income by the population of a given region.
Compared to personal income, PCPI’s trait of being population standardized has clear geographic differences, which, as seen in Figure 4 below, are especially evident around the Great Plains east of the Rockies and much of the southeastern U.S., among other regions, which stand out as having much higher PCPI than personal income values. It is important to note that many of these counties have low populations and are thus more subject to noticeable year-over-year changes.
These lower-population counties’ PCPI values can be swayed in either direction through companies’ investments led by the desire to leverage the expected benefits of moving into a region to taking advantage of the incentives often offered by these counties.
Figure 4: County-level per capita personal income in current USD, 2015-2024
Nationwide, personal income has risen by 12%, 27%, and 38% across the last three, five, and 10 years, respectively, yet on a per-capita basis a lower 10%, 24%, and 34% during the same periods. This lower growth may indicate that population growth is outpacing income growth. The economic pie is growing with personal income, but is being unequally divided among a larger number of people.
Figure 5, below, similar to Figure 3, includes a map for the three, five, and 10-year percent changes from 2015, 2020, and 2022 to 2024, respectively.
Figure 5: Percentage change in county-level per capita personal income, select periods from 2015-2024
Notes on the data
Personal income consists of all income received in return for a person’s provision of labor, land, and capital used in current production, as well as other income. When looking at a region, this metric represents income received by, or on behalf of, the people residing in that region. It is calculated as the sum of wages and salaries, supplements to wages and salaries, and other incomes, less contributions for government social insurance, plus the adjustment for residence.
Per capita personal income is calculated by BEA as total personal income divided by total midyear population.
For all data notes and limitations, refer to the BEA’s website.
This page was prepared by SSTI using Federal funds under award ED22HDQ3070129 from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Development Administration or the U.S. Department of Commerce.