ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 25, 1996 TAG: 9609250049
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Per capita incomes posted the fastest growth in five years in 1995, the government said Tuesday. Gains in every state except Hawaii and North Dakota exceeded the rate of inflation.
The Commerce Department said national per capita income growth increased 5.3 percent last year, to $23,208, compared with the department's original estimate of 5 percent last April.
Virginia ranked 36th among the states with a 4.5 percent gain over 1994. The per capita income in 1995 among Virginians was $23,974, according to the new report.
Nationally, last year's growth also was more than double the 2.4 percent increase in an index for personal consumption expenditures used in the study by the department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. Incomes had advanced 3.9 percent in 1994, to $22,047.
But the study found per capita incomes grew just 2.4 percent in Hawaii, to $24,590, and 2.3 percent in North Dakota, to $18,625. Both suffered big losses in farm income.
Per capita income is the annual total income of residents divided by a state's population.
The study found that most of the states sharing in the growth had large increases in dividend, interest and rental income and in government benefit payments. The fastest growth was along the East Coast, which included seven of the top 10 performers.
Rhode Island topped the states with 7.3 percent growth, to $23,844. It was followed by Massachusetts, up 6.4 percent to $28,021; New Hampshire, up 6.2 percent to $25,587; and Delaware, up 6 percent to $26,273.
New England had the fastest growth, up 6.1 percent to $27,388. The slowest was the Plains, with a 4.7 percent increase to $21,992.
Connecticut, where incomes were up 5.7 percent, had the highest per capita income, $31,776. New Jersey was next with $29,848, a 5.1 percent advance, followed by Massachusetts.
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