Jersey, Eastern Seaboard Lead in Income 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% 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% annual growth, to $18,685, for the decade.

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

Tied for fourth place, with 7.7% annual growth, were Connecticut, at $25,358, and Maine, $17,200.

Wyoming, whose per-capita income growth averaged just 3.8% annually, to $16,398, was at the bottom of the list. Just above it were Alaska, up 4.6% each year to $21,761; Oklahoma, up 5.1% to $15,444, and Louisiana, up 5.2% to $14,391.

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

Despite topping the growth list for the past 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 per-capita income totaling $25,358.

New Jersey was No. 2, followed by Massachusetts, $22,642; New York, $21,975, and Maryland, $21,864.

The next five were Alaska, $21,761; California, $20,795; New Hampshire, $20,789; Illinois, the only inland state in the Top 10, at $20,303, and Hawaii, $20,254.

Mississippi had the lowest per-capita income, at $12,735--$5,950 less than the national average.

Others at the bottom were West Virginia, $13,747; Utah, $14,083; Arkansas, $14,218; New Mexico, $14,228; Louisiana, $14,391; Alabama, $14,826; Kentucky, $14,929; South Carolina, $15,099, and Montana, $15,110.