December 20, 2001

Transfer Payments Increase in North Dakota in 2000

North Dakotans received nearly $2.5 billion in transfer payments in 2000, an increase of 6.9 percent from the $2.3 billion paid in 1999, according to the recent Economic Brief released from the North Dakota State Data Center at North Dakota State University. Transfer payments are income received by individuals for which they did not render services. They are payments by government and business to individuals and nonprofit institutions serving individuals.

Of total transfer payments, 95 percent were government payments to individuals. Retirement and disability payments accounted for slightly less than half of individual payments in 2000. Retirement payments amounted to $1.13 billion, an increase of 3.7 percent from the $1.09 billion in 1999. Medical payments (consisting of Medicare, Medicaid and other medical vendor payments and military medical payments) accounted for 39.3 percent of the state’s total transfers to individuals. Slightly more than $932 million was paid to North Dakotans in 2000 in medical payments, an increase of 14.3 percent from the $815 million paid in 1999.

"Medical payments are comprising a growing portion of total transfer payments," said Richard Rathge, director of the center. "In the early 1970s, medical payments accounted for roughly 20 percent of all transfer payments. That proportion has doubled and likely will continue to grow as an increasing number of elderly require more medical services," he said.

Income maintenance programs (such as supplementary security income, family assistance and food stamps) comprised the third largest category of individual transfer payments, accounting for 6.6 percent of the state’s individual transfers. Income maintenance payments rose to $156 million in 2000, an increase of 3.3 percent from the 1999 level. The remaining 6 percent of North Dakota’s individual transfers included unemployment insurance benefit payments, veterans benefit payments, and federal education training and assistance payments.

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Source: Richard Rathge, (701) 231-8621, richard.rathge@ndsu.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu

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