Income Data in Pacific Coast Economic Geography

Abstract

INCOME DATA IN PACIFIC COAST ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY Otis P. Starkey Indiana University Although economists commonly use national income figures, economic geographers have almost overlooked these valuable data. Geographers generally describe regions in terms of land use and area rather than in terms of productivity and income. Consequently from an economist's viewpoint, geography texts and regional studies seem to overemphasize farming, forestry , and mining. Yet these activities in 1960 contributed only about oneeighteenth of the total national income (Table 1) and the last year in which their contribution to the United States national income exceeded that of manufacturing was 1879.1 Agriculture is the major source of income in only three states: Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Only in one state, West Virginia, does mining reach even second place as an income producer. Even in Oregon and Washington forestry failed to win first or second place although by including the manufacture of wood products, forest products could be awarded first place in Oregon. Thus the data hardly justify, except perhaps in the study of underdeveloped areas, the common rural emphasis in economic geography. Table 1 National Income, by Industrial Origin.· 1960 Billions ofPer Industrial Divisiondollarscent All industries ................ 417.0100.0 Fanns ................. 16.13.9 Forests and fisheries ............. 1.00.2 Mining ................. 5.51.3 Primary industries .............. 22.65.4 Contract construction ............ 22.55.4 Manufacturing ............... 121.529.1 Wholesale and retail trade ........... 68.816.5 Finance, insurance, real estate, etc......... 42.311.5 Transportation ............... 17.84.3 Communications and public utilities ........ 16.64.0 Services ................. 50.012.0 Government and gov't enterprises ........ 52.612.6 Rest of the world . ............. 2.30.5 Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1962, p. 317. 1 Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial. Times to 1957, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Washington, 1960, p. 139. 45 Table 2 Personal Income by Major Sources, U.S. and Selected States: 1960 (billions of dollars) Source U.S.Calif.Ore.Wash.NY.ND. Farm income ........ 14.71.5.2.3.4.25 Non-farm proprietors' income . . . 36.24.2.5.64.0.12 Property income ....... 52.05.8S .87.3.12 Wage and salary disbursements: Mining ......... 3.8.2.06.01.07.01 Contract construction .... 15.61.9.2.31.6.05 Manufacturing ....... 87.48.0.71.39.5.03 Wholesale and retail trade ... 49.15.5.5.86.8.14 Finance, insurance and real estate . 12.61.3.1.22.4.02 Transportation ....... 14.61.4.2.31.7.05 Communications and public utilities 8.2.8.1.11.1.02 Services ......... 28.23.5.2.44.4.06 Government (including military) . 46.16.0.51.04.5.10 Other items (net) ....... 32.53.3.3.53.2.13 Total ........... 400.043.44.06.646.91.10 Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1962, pp. 320-21. Personal Income Data In this paper, California, Oregon, and Washington will be used to illustrate , first, the income data available and second a type of chart which will prove useful in their analysis. Income data for each state by sources of income are published annually in the Survey of Current Business and, in more condensed form, in the Statistical Abstract of the United States (Table 2). Personal income2 data in the detailed tables are distributed among twenty-two categories; however, about 92 per cent (by value) of the total income can be conveniently grouped into the ten categories used on the charts in Figure 1. Note that these are essentially the same as the categories in Table 2 except that finance, transportation, and communications have been combined and the catch-all category (other items) has been omitted. For regional analysis, since populations vary so greatly from state to state, raw income data such as in Table 2 must be first reduced to a per capita basis. Even when this is done the resulting figures show mainly that, except in a few states, manufacturing, trade, and government represent a large part of the total income and overshadow other items. Regional differentiation becomes apparent, however, if the per capita data in each category are compared with the data for the United States as a whole. The...