Income Gains Beat Inflation Rate

U.S. per capita personal income rose faster than the national inflation rate in every state last year except Alaska and Hawaii, Commerce Department figures showed.

Nationwide, per capita income rose 4.6 percent in 1996, above the 2.4 percent increase in consumer prices as measured by the price index for personal spending, the Commerce Department said. In 1995, U.S. per capita income rose 5.3 percent. Property income - including dividends, interest, and rental income - and transfer payments helped to boost 1995 per capita income levels, said Duke Tran, an analyst at the Commerce Department.

“Historically, the 1996 increase is still strong compared to 1993 and 1994,” Tran said. In 1993, per capita income rose 3.6 percent, and it rose 3.8 percent in 1994.

The biggest per capita income gains in 1996 came in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota, with farm earnings rebounding from low levels in 1995, the Commerce Department said.