NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
August 3, 2000
North Dakota’s average per capita income grew 4.8 percent per year between 1990 and 1998. That growth is slightly larger than the national annual average of 4.2 percent. Inflation rose by roughly 3 percent per year during that time, according to the recent Population Bulletin published by the North Dakota State Data Center at North Dakota State University.
"The trend over the past decade in North Dakota’s per capita income is quite interesting," said Richard Rathge, director of the Data Center. "For the past decade, farm income followed a pattern of rising dramatically one year and plummeting the next. For example, in 1998 farm earnings were nearly $564 million while in 1997 they were a negative $42 million and in 1996 exceeded $902 million. This seesaw effect has caused the state’s ranking in per capita income to move from 39th in the nation (1996) to 46th in 1997 and back to 39th in 1998 -- a pattern seen throughout the decade. Unfortunately it is very difficult to make any significant income gains relative to national averages if we continue this pattern of gains and losses," said Rathge.
In 1998 North Dakota had a per capita personal income of $22,892. This per capita income ranked North Dakota 39th in the nation and was 84.2 percent of the national average of $27,203. North Dakota’s per capita income rose 44 percent from its 1990 level of $15,880. Inflation rose 24.7 percent during the same time span. Thus, after adjusting for inflation, real per capita income rose 15.6 percent in North Dakota between 1990 and 1998.
Counties with the highest per capita income in 1998 were Pembina ($29,538), Cass ($27,139), and Burleigh ($25,117). The four counties with the lowest per capita incomes were Slope, Grant, Billings and Sioux, all less than $14,000. Eight counties had an increase in per capita income less than inflation (24.7 percent), thus the per capita incomes in these counties actually declined when adjusted for inflation. The majority of counties had increases above 24.7 percent.
North Dakota had a total personal income of $14.6 billion in 1998, an amount that ranked 49th among personal income totals of all the states and accounted for 0.2 percent of the national total.
In 1998, 53 percent of total personal income in North Dakota was concentrated in four counties: Cass, Burleigh, Grand Forks and Ward. Eighteen counties that had increases in total personal income less than 24.7 percent did not keep pace with inflation.
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Source: Richard Rathge (701) 231-8621
Editor: Tom Jirik (701) 231-9629
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