Kansas Personal Income

For the fourth quarter of 2021, the rate of personal income growth in Kansas was near the bottom of the states, although Kansas fared better for the entire year.

Recently the Bureau of Economic Analysis, an agency of the United States Department of Commerce, released state personal income data for the fourth quarter of 2021 and preliminary data for the year 2021.

For Kansas, personal income in the fourth quarter of 2021 was $171,967 million, a decline of 1.3 percent from the first quarter. For the nation, the increase was 2.4 percent. (These values, while considering one quarter, are expressed as an annual rate, and are adjusted for seasonality.) For Plains states, the decline was 0.1 percent. (For this data, Plains States are Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The fourth quarter of the calendar year consists of the months of October, November, and December.)

The results in Kansas for the fourth quarter ranked forty-second among the states.

For the year 2021, Kansas personal income rose by 6.5 percent, which was thirty-fifth among the states. For the same period, national personal income grew by 7.4 percent, and Plains states grew by 7.2 percent.

I’ve created two charts from this data. One shows personal income for each state, while the second shows per capita personal income. Both start with 2010. They show data as the difference between the state and the nation. States with a line near zero, like Minnesota and Tennessee, are states with personal income growing (or shrinking) at the same rate as the nation. States with declining lines, like Kansas, are states that are falling behind the nation.

According to BEA, “Personal income is the income received by, or on behalf of, all persons from all sources: from participation as laborers in production, from owning a home or business, from the ownership of financial assets, and from government and business in the form of transfers. It includes income from domestic sources as well as the rest of world. It does not include realized or unrealized capital gains or losses.”

Also from BEA: “Earnings by place of work is the sum of wages and salaries, supplements to wages and salaries, and proprietors’ income. BEA’s industry estimates are presented on an earnings by place of work basis.”

The release from BEA may be found in its news archive.

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