.. examining characteristics, patterns and change in personal economic well-being; learning about what per capita personal income by county tells us. Per capita personal income (PCPI) is the best single measure of personal economic well-being. PCPI differs American Community Survey (ACS) measure of per capita income, median household income and similar income measures as PCPI includes non-monetary income .. PCPI provides a more comprehensive measure. This post provides an update focused on new data released November 2022, county level personal income time series data starting in 1969.
Patterns of 2021 Per Capita Personal Income by County
.. click graphic for larger view
.. use VDA Web GIS for Web-based interactive viewing/analytics.
.. see this more detailed analytical framework for analytics using VDA Desktop.
Importance of these Data
How is the regional economy doing? How is it trending? What policies might be changed to improve personal economic well-being? Answers to these and similar questions are why knowing about personal income and its derivation, components is important — to residents, businesses and governments. While median household income is often considered the best measure of buying power for an area, it is not the best measure of personal or household economic well-being. PCPI and the Regional Economic Information System provides insights and answers to these questions.
U.S. Change in PCPI
In U.S. metropolitan areas, PCPI increased 7.3 percent in 2021, up from 6.0 percent in 2020. In U.S. nonmetropolitan areas, PCPI increased 7.5 percent, down from 7.9 percent.
Regional Economic Information System
PCPI is a small part of the broader Regional Economic Information System (REIS). The following links show examples of detailed tables for Harris County, TX comparing 2019 and 2021 developed using the ProximityOne REIS package. Develop these profiles for any county for your selected year 1970 through 2021.
• Personal Income by Major Source
• Earnings by Source & Sector
• Employment by Type & Sector
• Transfer Payments
• Economic Profile
• Farm Income & Expenditures
About VDA GIS
VDA Web GIS is a decision-making information resource designed to help stakeholders create and apply insight. Use VDA Web GIS with only a Web browser; nothing to install; GIS experience not required. VDA Web GIS has been developed and is maintained by Warren Glimpse, ProximityOne (Alexandria, VA) and Takashi Hamilton, Tsukasa Consulting (Osaka, Japan).
About the Author
Warren Glimpse is former senior Census Bureau statistician responsible for national scope statistical programs and innovative data access and use operations. He is also the former associate director of the U.S. Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards for data access and use. He has more than 20 years of experience in the private sector developing data resources and tools for integration and analysis of geographic, demographic, economic and business data. Join Warren on LinkedIn.
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