Total personal income in North Dakota rose to $22.3 billion in 2007, up 6.7 percent from $20.9 billion in 2006. Meanwhile, prices paid by consumers, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (http://www.bls.gov/cpi), increased 2.8 percent between 2006 and 2007.

Thus, even after adjusting for inflation, North Dakota’s personal income increased by 3.8 percent between 2006 and 2007. In addition, during the past 10 years, North Dakota’s national ranking in per-capita income improved from 42nd in 1997 to 30th in 2007.

“These impressive gains demonstrate how robust our state’s economy is, especially given the strong showing in both the agricultural and energy sectors,” says Richard Rathge, North Dakota State Data Center director.

This month’s “Economic Brief,” a monthly publication from the State Data Center at North Dakota State University, focuses on personal income figures reported by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (http://www.bea.gov). Personal income consists of resident earnings, investment and property income (dividends, interest and rent) and transfer receipts, such as retirement, disability, and medical and income maintenance payments (payments for which no services are performed).

Between 2006 and 2007, net earnings rose 6.5 percent, investment and property income rose 7.9 percent and transfer receipts rose 6.2 percent. This increase in transfers is significant because approximately $1 out of every $6 of North Dakotans’ income was derived from government transfer payments in 2007.

Half of all North Dakota earnings were generated by government, health care, manufacturing and retail trade industries in 2007 (49.9 percent). In terms of growth between 2006 and 2007, earnings from company management grew the fastest (24.1 percent), followed by mining (14.2 percent) and educational services (12.9 percent).

North Dakota per-capita income (total personal income divided by total resident population) grew 6.4 percent in 2007 to $34,846, which was the fifth largest growth rate in the nation. Nationally in 2007, North Dakota ranked 30th in per-capita income, which is 9.8 percent below the national average of $38,611. The District of Columbia ranked No.1 at $54,117, followed by New Jersey ($49,194), Massachusetts ($49,082) and New York ($47,385).

North Dakota State University