Posted on 11/29/2005 2:43:30 PM PST by Graybeard58
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans have been migrating south and west for decades, but it appears they've been leaving some high-paying jobs behind. While there are many pockets of wealth in the South and West, the states with the highest wage earners line the East Coast, according to Census data released Tuesday.
Connecticut, with a median household income of $56,409, supplanted New Jersey as the country's highest wage state in 2003, the most recent year available. New Jersey slid to second, at $56,356, followed by Maryland, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Mississippi had the lowest median income, at $32,397. West Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana and Montana rounded out the bottom five.
The median household income for the nation was $43,318.
Census figures show that Southern and Western states have been growing in population much faster than those in the Northeast and Midwest.
But despite those population shifts, the list of wealthiest - and poorest - states in 2003 looks a lot like the list from a decade before.
"You're going to see those areas - Mississippi, Appalachia - those are just characteristically, throughout history, poorer areas," said David Waddington, chief of the Census Bureau's small area estimates branch.
The wage gap among counties was even more pronounced than the one for states.
Los Alamos County in New Mexico, home of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, had the nation's highest median income, at $93,089. It was followed by Douglas County in Colorado and Loudoun County in northern Virginia.
Buffalo County in South Dakota, home of the Crow Creek Indian Reservation, had the lowest, at $17,003. It was followed by Owsley County in Kentucky and Ziebach County, also in South Dakota.
Most of the wealthiest counties were suburban, and nearly all the poorest ones were rural.
"This is a reflection of a poverty problem in non-metro areas," said Dean Jolliffe, an economist at the Department of Agriculture. "These are areas where there really isn't any economic development going on."
Jolliffe tracks "persistent poverty" counties, ones in which at least 20 percent of the population have lived below the poverty level for at least 30 years. There were 386 persistent poverty counties in 2000, and 340 were outside metropolitan areas.
None was in the Northeast. Most were in the South.
A break down of the top and bottom 20 counties can be found here:
http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/money/article/0,2777,DRMN_23908_4275285,00.html
What an idiotic approach. If you want to see persistent, hideous poverty, go to North Philly. But that is within the larger Philadelphia County, so it apparently doesn't appear on the radar screens here, even though I imagine the number of poor exceed those in the "persistent poverty" areas.
Just goes to show that money isn't everything.
The abundence of jobs, lower taxes, lower cost of living, and far better weather is why many are moving south.
Jobs are moving out of the Northeast precisely because the cost of living and salaries are both so high.
Businesses can pay their workers less in other parts of the country and still give them a decent standard of living. That leaves a bunch of super rich in the Northeast.
Now obviously that's a simplification, but it doesn't seem all that hard to see that businesses will flee unionized, high-cost, high-pay regions if they can find attractive places to set up elsewhere.
Don't forget nicer laid back people.
Earn less but keep more....move south!
Good point. Morris, Somerset, and Hunterdon Counties in New Jersey are all ranked among the top ten in median income -- but if you took the geographic region where the three counties meet and looked at it as a county unto itself it would make just about any other county in the U.S. look like a slum.
Hightest cost of living in East (and California), lowest in South.
Wages are low in Buffalo county,SD. 17,000. Of course there's all of 800 people there. And if you live there, your 3 bedroom home cost you around $20,000, and your total state and local tax bill rings you up around $400, and you pay little or no federal taxes. Need food? Keep a calf in the back yard.
Would ya'll please shut up?
The South sucks....bigtime....and I want every Yankee to know that.
You guys are 12th
you rich exploiter of the poor you!
I don't live in the south but you'd better be wearing your flame proof undies.
It isn't how much money you earn, but how much your money will buy.
The South is horrible....all the stereotypes are so true....smart Yankees should stay home
From reading this, they didn't cross index it with the COST OF LIVING expenses which are easily higher in Boston than in Middle of Nowhere Mississippi.
the land prices are higher, the services cost more, everything in Boston. You NEED more money to pay for the basics in Boston than in Mississippi or Alabama.
Gottcha.
I'm a bit slow on the uptake tonight. (every other night for that matter)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.