Median nonmetro household income for 2009 was $40,135--marking a
4.5 percent decline in inflation-adjusted dollars from the nonmetro
median's pre-recessionary peak (in 2007). Median household income
in metro areas was $51,522, little changed from the previous year,
and still 3.9 percent below its 2007 value.
Median household income in nonmetro areas was 77.9 percent of
the metro median, although the generally lower cost of living in
rural areas narrows this gap in real terms.
Total per capita income includes all cash income, as well as the
cash value of in-kind public assistance benefits such as
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (food stamps), Medicare, and
Medicaid. These public transfer payments have become an
increasingly important component of income in both metro and
nonmetro areas as a result of the recession. Transfer payments
accounted for 25 percent of nonmetro income per capita in 2009,
compared with 21 percent on average between 2001 and 2008. (See
also the chapter on transfer payments.)
| Household money income by residence, 2000-09 (in
2009 dollars) |
| Year |
Nonmetro |
Metro |
Nonmetro as percentage of metro (%)
|
|
Median household income ($)
|
Change from previous year (%)
|
Median household income ($)
|
Change from previous year (%)
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| 2009 |
40,135 |
-1.2 |
51,522 |
-0.3 |
77.9 |
| 2008 |
40,630 |
-3.3 * |
51,656 |
-3.7 * |
78.7 |
| 2007 |
42,024 |
3.1 * |
53,630 |
-0.4 |
78.4 |
| 2006 |
40,750 |
-1.2 |
53,864 |
1.2 * |
75.7 |
| 2005 |
41,264 |
NA |
53,249 |
NA |
77.5 |
| 2004 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| 2003 |
40,939 |
-1.0 |
53,704 |
-0.6 |
76.2 |
| 2002 |
41,350 |
1.6 |
54,001 |
-1.4 * |
76.6 |
| 2001 |
40,704 |
-0.7 |
54,778 |
-1.6 * |
74.3 |
| 2000 |
40,999 |
-3.8 * |
55,674 |
1.7 * |
73.6 |
*Indicates a statistically significant change in
median income, at the 90-percent confidence level.
NA = Not available.
Note: Estimates for 2004 are not available because the definition
of metropolitan areas changed during the course of that year. The
post-2004 estimates reflect the new metro/nonmetro
definitions.
Source: Calculated by ERS using data from the Annual Social and
Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (P-60),
U.S. Census Bureau. Adjusted for inflation using CPI-U. |
Nonfarm Earnings Per Job
Real nonfarm earnings per job were essentially unchanged in
2009. Nonfarm earnings make up 96 percent of total farm and
nonfarm earnings (from wages, salaries, and self-employment) in
nonmetro counties and fully 99.6 percent of earnings in metro
counties.
The trend in average nonfarm earnings per job in metro versus
nonmetro areas is one measure of the changing urban-rural wage gap.
In 2009, the average metro job paid $53,373 while the average job
in a nonmetro county paid $36,920. Over the past 30 years, average
metro earnings per job have grown faster than nonmetro earnings per
job. As a result, average nonmetro earnings per job equaled 69
percent of the metro average in 2009, compared with 81 percent in
the late 1970s. This gap, however, appears to have narrowed in the
wake of the 2001 recession, and also during the 2007-09
recession.