The incomes of Connecticut’s residents fell in 2009, along with that for many fellow Americans, yet Nutmeggers’ are still the wealthiest in the nation, new federal data shows.
Connecticut’s 2009 per capita personal income was $54,397, down 3.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Connecticut personal income was 139 percent of the national average of $39,138, which declined 2.6 percent from 2008.
Tracked over a 10-year period, Connecticut and U.S. personal incomes rose nearly in lock step. Connecticut’s was up 3.5 percent vs. 3.3 percent for the U.S. from 1999 to 2009, the bureau said.
Connecticut counted 3,518,288 residents in 2009, ranking 29th among all 50 states, the agency said.
Ranking the rest of the top five states by 2009 personal income, New Jersey was second, at $50,313; No. 3 Massachusetts was $49,875; No. 4 Maryland was $48,285; and No. 5 New York was $46,957.
Examining Connecticut’s metropolitan markets among the 343 metro markets in the U.S., the Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford area ranked 12th, with 2009 per-capita income of $49,667, down 2.1 percent from 2008, the bureau said.
New Haven-Milford market was No. 22, at $46,125, down 1.7 percent; and Norwich-New London was No. 23, at $46,082, down 0.7 percent. The Stamford, Greenwich, Bridgeport and Waterbury markets were not listed.Â
The metropolitan markets with the fastest personal income growth in 2009 were: Jacksonville and Fayetteville, N.C.; Manhattan, Kan.; Elizabethtown, Ky; Lawton, Okla.; Clarksville, Tenn.; and Killeen, Texas.
Among metro markets with populations of one million or more, only three – Washington D.C.; San Antonio, Texas; and Virginia Beach, Va. — had an increase in both net earnings and personal income in 2009, the agency said.
Two others — Baltimore and Pittsburgh — saw personal income rise, despite a decline in net earnings.
