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Median nonmetro household income for 2009 was $40,135, a decline of 4.5 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars from its pre-recessionary peak (in 2007). Median household income in metro areas was $51,522, little changed from the previous year, and still 3.9 percent below its 2007 value.
Median household income in nonmetro areas was 77.9 percent of the metro median, although the generally lower cost of living in rural areas narrows this gap in real terms.
Total per capita income includes all cash income as well as the cash value of in-kind public assistance benefits such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (food stamps), Medicare, and Medicaid. These public transfer payments have become an increasingly important component of income in both metro and nonmetro areas as a result of the recession. Transfer payments accounted for 25 percent of nonmetro income per capita in 2009, compared with 21 percent on average between 2001 and 2008. (See also the chapter on transfer payments).
| Household money
income by residence, 2000-09 (in 2009 dollars) |
| Year |
Nonmetro |
Metro |
Nonmetro as percentage
of metro (%) |
Median household income ($) |
Change from previous year (%) |
Median household income ($) |
Change from previous year (%) |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| 2009 |
40,135 |
-1.2 |
51,522 |
-0.3 |
77.9 |
| 2008 |
40,630 |
-3.3 * |
51,656 |
-3.7 * |
78.7 |
| 2007 |
42,024 |
3.1 * |
53,630 |
-0.4 |
78.4 |
| 2006 |
40,750 |
-1.2 |
53,864 |
1.2 * |
75.7 |
| 2005 |
41,264 |
NA |
53,249 |
NA |
77.5 |
| 2004 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| 2003 |
40,939 |
-1.0 |
53,704 |
-0.6 |
76.2 |
| 2002 |
41,350 |
1.6 |
54,001 |
-1.4 * |
76.6 |
| 2001 |
40,704 |
-0.7 |
54,778 |
-1.6 * |
74.3 |
| 2000 |
40,999 |
-3.8 * |
55,674 |
1.7 * |
73.6 |
*Indicates a statistically significant
change in median income, at the 90-percent confidence
level.
NA = Not available.
Note: Estimates for 2004 are not available because
the definition of metropolitan areas changed during
the course of that year. The post-2004 estimates
reflect the new metro/nonmetro definitions.
Source: Calculated by ERS using data from the Annual
Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current
Population Survey (P-60), U.S. Census Bureau. Adjusted for inflation using CPI-U. |
Nonfarm Earnings Per Job
Real nonfarm earnings per job were essentially unchanged in 2009. Nonfarm earnings make up 96 percent of total farm and nonfarm earnings (from wages, salaries, and self-employment) in nonmetro counties and fully 99.6 percent of earnings in metro counties.
The trend in average nonfarm earnings per job in metro versus nonmetro areas is one measure of the changing urban-rural wage gap. In 2009, the average metro job paid $53,373 while the average job in a nonmetro county paid $36,920. Over the past 30 years, average metro earnings per job have grown faster than nonmetro earnings per job. As a result, average nonmetro earnings per job were equal to 69 percent of the metro average in 2009, compared with 81 percent in the late 1970s. This gap, however, appears to have narrowed in the wake of the 2001 recession, and also during the 2007-09 recession.
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