Lane County’s Per Capita Personal Income Increased in 2019

January 5, 2021

The U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis released its 2019 estimates of personal income for substate areas (counties and townships) in late November 2020.

Personal income includes all forms of income: earnings by place of work; dividends, interest, and rent; and government transfer payments (largely Social Security and Medicare). Total personal income is then divided by population to create per capita personal income.

Lane County’s real (inflation adjusted) per capita personal income increased $380 (0.8%) in 2019 to reach $47,340. In comparison, Oregon grew by $760 (1.4%) to reach $53,190 and the U.S. grew $890 (1.6%) to reach $56,490. Lane County’s 2019 increase followed increases of 2.6% in 2017 and 1.4% in 2018.
Lane County’s total personal income rose by approximately $627 million between 2018 and 2019 to reach $18.1 billion, a 3.6% increase. When the data are adjusted for inflation, however, total personal income increased by $311 million, or 1.7%. The increase in 2019 follows an inflation-adjusted increase of roughly $393 million (2.3%) in 2018.

The components of personal income for Lane County show that 55% was from earnings; 22% from dividends, interest, and rent; and 23% from transfer payments, primarily in the form of Social Security and Medicare. Lane County has similar component portions of personal income compared with the U.S. and Oregon, although Lane County is somewhat higher in transfer payments and lower in earnings by place of work, likely indicating a somewhat higher proportion of retirees and students.
Relative to other areas, Lane County’s per capita personal income dropped slightly to 89% of the statewide and remained at 84% of the U.S. figures. Lane County’s per capita personal income ranked 12^th among Oregon’s 36 counties.

More information, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on statewide personal income, is available in the article Oregon's Per Capita Personal Income 2019.