
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 18, 1991                   TAG: 9104180051
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

INCOME ROSE FASTEST IN EAST/ VIRGINIA RANKS 12TH IN DECADE GROWTH

People living along the East Coast enjoyed the fastest income growth during the record prosperity of the 1980s, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

At the top of the list were residents of New Jersey, whose per capita incomes jumped an average 8 percent annually, to $24,968, between 1980 and 1990, according to a study by the department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. The national average was 6.5 percent annual growth, to $18,685, for the decade.

Virginia ranked 12th with a 7.2 percent income growth in the decade to $19,746 per person.

Other top growth states, during the longest peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history, were Massachusetts, up an average 7.9 percent each year to $22,642; and New Hampshire, up 7.8 percent to $20,789.

Per capita income is the annual total personal income divided by the resident population.

Despite topping the growth list for the last decade, residents of New Jersey were not the wealthiest people in the nation as the 1990s began. That distinction went to those living in Connecticut, who had a per capita income totaling $25,358.

As the economy settled into a recession as 1990 came to a close, the growth in personal income was slowing everywhere except in the Rocky Mountain and Plains regions. And the faster increase there was due entirely to federal farm subsidies, the study said.

Personal income grew just 0.8 percent in the nation as a whole during the fourth quarter last year, down from 1.3 percent from July through September. Personal income is the total pre-tax income from all sources, less social insurance.

The report also said personal income growth failed to keep up with inflation, which totaled 1.7 percent in the fourth quarter as measured by a Commerce Department index.

By region, personal incomes grew 0.6 percent in New England, down from 1.0 percent in the third quarter; 0.5 percent in the Mideast, down from 1.3 percent; 0.5 percent in the Great Lakes, down from 1.2 percent; 0.5 percent in the Southeast, down from 1.4 percent; 2.3 percent in the Plains states, up from 0.1 percent; 1.3 percent in the Southwest, down from 1.7 percent; 2.9 percent in the Rocky Mountains, up from 1.0 percent, and 0.9 percent in the West, down from 1.6 percent.

by CNB