Useful Stats: Growth in metropolitan per capita income, 2009-2018

The largest increases in per capita income for metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) within the United States have occurred primarily within the Western, Mountain and Great Lakes states, according to data recently released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Nearly every MSA experienced greater income levels in 2018 when compared to their 10-year average. More than 180 out of 385 MSAs experienced an income increase of greater than 10 percent in 2012 dollars, while only two MSAs (Enid, OK and Clarksville, TN-KY) measured lower income in 2018 than over their 10-year average.

The MSAs with the largest per capita income increase when compared to the previous decade were:

• San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA – 26 percent
• Midland, MI – 23 percent
• Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR – 22 percent
• Elkhart-Goshen, IN – 22 percent
• Napa, CA – 21 percent
• St. George, UT – 20 percent
• Wheeling, WV-OH – 20 percent
• Midland, TX – 19 percent
• Provo-Orem, UT – 19 percent
• Boulder, CO – 18 percent

When comparing 2018 to 2017, the BEA found that "no state had a decline in real personal income," noting that, "states with the slowest growth in real personal income were Mississippi (0.9 percent), Kentucky (1.4 percent), and New Jersey (1.9 percent)," while the states with the fastest growth were "Wyoming (6.7 percent), Colorado (5.3 percent), and South Dakota (5.0 percent)."

msadata2008-2018.xlsx