Real personal income in Wichita and other metropolitan areas

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When adjusted for regional differences, per capita personal income in Wichita is relatively high. In recent years growth in per capita and total personal income has been slow, but better in 2019.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis, a division of the United States Department of Commerce, generates personal income data for the nation, the states, and metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs. Today BEA released data for 2019, and I present the metro data in an interactive visualization.

When presenting economic data, the term “real” commonly means that dollar amounts have been adjusted for the effects of inflation. That is the case for this data. BEA goes further in also adjusting data for regional price parity and personal consumption expenditures price index.

The difference when using values adjusted for regional differences can be substantial. For example, when considering per capita personal income in 2019 using current, non-adjusted dollars, Wichita ranks number 113 among the nation’s 384 metropolitan areas. When adjusted for region, Wichita ranks number 56.

In the example for some nearby metro areas, Wichita’s per capita personal income is near the middle at $54,460. But since 2011, Wichita per capita personal income has grown slowly, rising by 12 percent while the national value grew by 18 percent. For the same period, total personal income in Wichita grew by 15 percent, while the nation grew by 24 percent. For Wichita, 2019 was an improvement from 2018.

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To learn more about this data and access the interactive visualizations, click here.

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