Thanks Fracking: North Dakota Personal Incomes Have Grown 78% Since 2000

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Written By:
Rob Port

May 4, 2012
9:10am

In the last ten years, North Dakota has gone from 38th in the nation in personal incomes to 9th.

From a press release sent out by the North Dakota Commerce Department:

BISMARCK — North Dakota’s per capita personal income has increased over 78 percent since 2000, according to statistics recently released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). According to the BEA report, the per capita personal income in North Dakota in 2011 was $45,747; an increase of $20,155 since 2000 when the per capita personal income was $25,592. Nationally, per capital personal income increased by 37.4 percent over the same period.

Here’s a map also sent along by the Commerce Department illustrating where the growth has taken place. You’ll note that oil country, of course, is leading the way. What’s interesting, though, is that in Cass County (including the metro Fargo area) has just barely been keeping up with inflation. Grand Forks County has performed only slightly better.

North Dakota’s politicians often like to discount the profound impact the oil boom has had on the state’s economy. You see, if North Dakota’s prosperity were entirely due to something as circumstantial as an oil boom, then there’s not a lot of credit left over for them to take. So you’ll often hear about job growth outside of oil country, and you’ll hear plenty of credit heaped on government-orchestrated economic development deals.

The truth, though, is that the “North Dakota way” for prosperity is to hit oil. There’s no special political formula our state’s leaders have applied. North Dakota’s prosperity is due to oil and, to a lesser extent, strong markets for coal and agriculture.