Personal Income Across U.S. States

Ehsan Soltani

Personal income refers to all income collectively received by individuals or households within a country or region. It encompasses compensation from various sources, such as salaries, wages, bonuses from employment or self-employment, dividends and distributions from investments, rental receipts from real estate investments, and profit sharing from businesses.

In the United States, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) tracks personal income statistics. Per capita personal income statistics are calculated by dividing the total personal income by the population.

According to the BEA, U.S. per capita personal income reached $68,717 in 2023 (third quarter estimation). Among the states, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, California, and New York had the highest per capita personal income, exceeding $80,000 per year, while Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, and Kentucky had the lowest per capita personal income, less than $55,000 per year, based on third quarter 2023 data. During the same period, the per capita personal income in the District of Columbia was more than twice that of Mississippi. Generally, New England had the highest per capita personal income at $82,387, while the Southeast had the lowest per capita personal income at $61,523 among U.S. regions in the third quarter of 2023.

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