A Look at Minnesota Income
November 24, 2017
Minnesotans enjoy per capita income that is 13.3 percent higher than the national average. This article breaks down the sources of that income.
Minnesota’s share of U.S. income, as measured by the American Community Survey (ACS), reached its highest level in 2014 before slipping slightly in 2015. The 2016 income numbers are due out in September, so stay tuned to see how the state fared in 2016.
The ACS income data, available since 2005, is one of three aggregated measures of income that are useful in tracking relative economic progress across states.1
The ACS income data are based on household surveys and not administration records, such as income tax and unemployment insurance records used by the two other income estimates. Responses to two questions in the American Community Survey are added up to produce income estimates across various geographic areas. The first question asks about total income over the last 12 months, while the other question asks about the sources of the income.
According to the ACS, the estimated aggregated income of Minnesotans in 2015 was $179.3 billion, putting the state 16th among states even though Minnesota ranked 21st in population.
Minnesota’s total income topped Arizona, Indiana, Tennessee, Missouri and Wisconsin, which each have more residents than Minnesota. Minnesota’s share of U.S. income was 1.94 percent in 2015, while the state’s population share was 1.71 percent. That translates into Minnesota having 13.3 percent more income per person than the average U.S. person.
Another way of looking at the income data without thinking about Minnesota’s share of national income and population is to directly compare per capita incomes. The 2015 ACS estimates of per capita income in Minnesota and the U.S. were $32,699 and $28,872, respectively.2 As with the share approach, Minnesota’s per capita income in 2015 was 13.3 percent higher than the nationwide per capita income. Minnesota’s per capita income was 11 percent higher than the national average in 2005 and rose to 14.8 percent higher in 2014, before backing off to 13.3 percent higher in 2015, according to the ACS figures.