Posted on 10/10/2018 8:50:54 AM PDT by mjp
Comparing the Wealth of U.S. Geographic Regions Over Time
Every year, the average American takes home about $51,600 in personal income. Of course, what you make each year depends on factors like your job, work ethic, education, and personal circumstances – but it also varies significantly over geography.
The Geographical Wage Gap
Today’s chart uses data from the Brookings Institute, and it focuses on the geographical wage gap, or the difference in per capita income that exists between various U.S. regions. Interestingly, it’s a gap that has historically narrowed over time.
Just after the Great Depression, income per capita in the Mideast was 50% higher than the average American, and roughly three times higher than in the Southeast. Over the next 50 years, this gap would continue to narrow until reaching its smallest differential by the mid-1980s.
In the last couple of decades, however, the geographical wage gap has shown signs of a potential reversal: per capita incomes in New England, Mideast, and Far West have been increasing relative to the average American wage, while other regions are remaining more stagnant.
The Vitality Index
Wages are just one factor in measuring prosperity, and the Brookings Institute has attempted to create a more well-rounded approach to this with the Vitality Index. The Vitality Index is comprised of the following variables:
Median household income – 45%
Poverty rate – 24%
Prime-age employment-to-population ratio – 9%
Housing vacancy rate – 5%
Unemployment rate – 4%
The following map is directly from the aforementioned report, and it shows the Vitality Index by county, using recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau:
Actually the top three regions at the end of the depression are the top three today, and the biggest loser has been the great lacks region, while the rest are higher now but still bobbing up and down below the national average.
It seems the more some things change, the more they really stay the ssme.
Interesting stuff. But splitting Northern Virginia from Washington D.C. into different regions undoubtedly hides the key prosperity issue since Obama was elected. Everyone around D.C. got rich and their property got massively more valuable as the federal government confiscated more and more wealth from ordinary citizens and doled it out to its courtiers.
You really cannot separate the economics of Northern Virginia from DC.
The article states that COL is not considered in the Vitality Index- so, if one made the average income ($52k), say in rural MO as compared to NYC, does anyone here really think the person living on $52k in NYC has a more vital lifestyle without comparing COL??
So much for these rocket science economists. They missed the forest completely.
Being a long-time resident of the South, I can tell you, the particular metrics are selected and/or weighted to always produce the Northeast on top and the South on the bottom.
“It would be reasonable to adjust median household income for cost of living, but we opted to not do this...”
Agreed. And I am a former NY Yankee who saw the light and left for good ( 40 years ago).
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