2023 Rogue Valley Local Area Personal Income
January 7, 2025New figures published from the Bureau of Economic Analysis show healthy gains in Oregon and Rogue Valley per capita personal income (PCPI) between 2022 and 2023. PCPI is just one of the figures recently released in the State and Local Area Personal Income series available now for 2023 at www.bea.gov.
Per capital personal income is one of the most often cited figures to measure an area’s overall economic prosperity. But there are a few factors that make this an imperfect yardstick to compare local areas and economies. Since the data use total income – earnings from work; personal current transfer receipts; and dividends, interest, and rent – and divide that by total population, areas with a higher concentration of older residents can show lower PCPI. The reason is that as people leave the labor force, they have likely passed their peak earning years, and therefore have less contribution to the net earnings component of income. Remember, PCPI represents income, rather than wealth. Older residents may have substantial wealth, but not have as much relative income, and this wealth would not be captured in PCPI figures, unless it was income-generating investments that would show up in the “dividends, interest, and rent” portion of PCPI. Just as we’ve seen corporate profits rising much faster than average U.S. worker wages, faster growth in overall economic output doesn’t necessarily mean equally fast growth in per capita personal income.
Another limitation of comparing local economies using PCPI as a yardstick is that there is no accounting for the differences in cost-of-living among local areas. Places with lower costs of living and lower PCPI can be relatively as well-off as areas with higher costs of living and higher PCPI. Knowing the limitations of the data can help you understand how to view the figures in a clearer context.
In 2023, Jackson County’s PCPI was $62,541 which was an increase of 6.8% from 2022 and was the 819th highest PCPI among 3,114 U.S. counties, up from 899th highest in 2022. Josephine County’s PCPI was $55,038, and up 6.7% over the year, ranking 1,448th highest PCPI among U.S counties. The Rogue Valley’s PCPI increase was slightly better than Oregon statewide (5.8%) and the U.S. increase (5.4%). Jackson County’s PCPI was 92% of statewide and 90% of the U.S. average per capita personal income. Josephine County’s PCPI was 81% of the state average and 79% of the U.S. PCPI figure in 2023.
About 51% of Jackson County’s personal income is from net earnings, which includes wage and salary income, farm, and non-farm proprietor income. In Josephine County, 45% of personal income was from net earnings. The Rogue Valley’s net earnings share of personal income was a little lower than for the United States (61%) or Oregon statewide (59%). Per capital net earnings in Jackson County were $32,078 compared with $39,676 for Oregon. Josephine County’s per capital net earnings reached $24,843 in 2023.
Per capita personal current transfer receipts made up about 18% of U.S. personal income, 27% in Jackson County, and 37% in Josephine County. About 90% of the Rogue Valley’s personal current transfer receipts were from “retirement and other income,” reflecting our slightly older population with more retirees than the state overall. Both Jackson ($15,675) and Josephine County ($18,445) had higher per capita retirement and other income than Oregon ($12,920). Jackson ($1,263) and Josephine County ($1,511) also had greater per capita “income maintenance” than the Oregon average ($1,063).
Dividends, interest, and rent income accounted for about 21.3% of Jackson’s personal income in 2023, just slightly more than the share for the U.S at 20.6%. Dividends, interest, and rent accounted for 18% of Josephine County personal income. Since the late 1960’s, Jackson County’s PCPI gap with Oregon has ranged between about 14% to a low of -3.8% in 2003 since the late 1960’s. In 2023, the gap between Jackson and Oregon’s PCPI was -$5,297 or -7.8% below Oregon’s PCPI figure. Josephine County’s PCPI has roughly paralleled Jackson’s over the years, with Jackson County PCPI income running between about 10 to 15% greater than Josephine’s since the mid 1980’s. In 2023, Josephine County’s PCPI was $12,800 lower than the Oregon figure.
There are many other data and statistics available from the State and Local Personal Income series published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. For more information, visit the website at https://www.bea.gov/ and explore the interactive tables, maps, and other data.