A new report on average income per person tells southwest Connecticut residents what they already knew – their take home pay is down big time.
In fact, the estimate released today by the U.S. Commerce Department showed per capita income in the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk metro area fell by one of the biggest margins in the nation in 2009.
Yet the news was not all bad. The metropolitan area that stretches from Greenwich to Bridgeport and includes Westport remains far and away the wealthiest among 366 U.S. areas — as it has for years.
Per capita income in the Bridgeport- Stamford-Norwalk metro area was $73,720 in 2009, down 6.8 percent from $79,108 the previous year, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.
That is almost 20 percent higher than the next wealthiest metro area of San Francisco and the East Bay, which came in at $59,696 after falling by 4.6 percent.
While income was down in southwest Connecticut and elsewhere across the state, the Hartford, New Haven and New London metro areas improved compared to previous years.
In 2009, Hartford was ranked 12th highest in the nation in per capita income, up from 15th in 2008, while New Haven jumped to 22 from 26. New London came in at No. 23, up from 29th place in 2008.
The figures were calculated by totaling each area’s income and dividing by the population.
Economists noted this means a relatively small number of super-rich people can skew the tally upward for a metro area — in contrast to median income, which is a broader measure of how typical families are faring.
Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk registered the fourth largest loss of per capita income among all metro areas in 2009, with Midland, Texas, sustaining the biggest decline at 8.4 percent, to $49,441.
Even hard-hit Las Vegas fared better than Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, sliding 6.2 percent, to $37,457.
