Per-Capita Income Growth Rate Rises to 5.3% for ’95

The nation’s per-capita personal income growth last year was the fastest since 1991, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, with Connecticut again leading state rankings and Mississippi still on the bottom rung.

The per-capita personal income growth rate increased to 5.3% from 3.9% for 1994, the department’s revised estimates show. The income growth rate for 1995 was originally estimated at 5.0%.

U.S. per-capita income was $23,208 for 1995, up from $22,047 for 1994. The 5.3% increase is more than double the 2.4% rise in prices as measured by the price index for personal consumption expenditures, the Commerce Department said.

Connecticut led the 50 states with a per-capita income of $31,776 for 1995, up from $30,054 for 1994. The state has held the No. 1 spot since 1986, a Commerce Department analyst said.

Mississippi remained at the bottom, with a per-capita income of $16,683, although that figure is somewhat higher than the $15,906 for 1994. The state has been in last place since at least 1969, which is as far back as current rankings can be compared, the analyst said.

Forty states had faster income growth, with large increases in dividend, interest and rental income and in transfer payments accounting for most of the change, the department said.

Rhode Island had the fastest rate of growth, at 7.3%. Seven of the 10 states with the fastest growth rates are on the East Coast, the report said. In those seven, “substantial earnings increases in services and wholesale trade also contributed to personal income growth,” the department said.

North Dakota reported the slowest rate of income growth, at 2.3%. Nine of the 11 states with the slowest growth rates are in the far West, Plains and Rocky Mountain regions, the report said.