Midland, TX Is Now The Richest Metropolitan Area In The US Based On Per Capita Income -- US Census Bureau Data -- December 3, 2019

Note: in a long note like this, there will be factual and typographical errors. If this is important to you, go to the source. 

At the link at the right, two links that every reader should check out occasionally:

• The Oilman Magazine;
• The North American Shale Magazine;

The third magazine, The Bakken Magazine, does not download; it may no longer exist. But I digress.

From The Oilman Magazine link below:

From the current issue of The Oilman Magazine, dated December 3, 2019, "Midland, TX, is now the richest metropolitan area in the US." The date of the article is obviously wrong (a "cut and paste" error, probably) because the link takes one to a 2019 story tracking US income data from 2016 to 2018. The link to that story: https://oilmanmagazine.com/midland-tx-is-now-the-richest-metropolitan-area-in-the-u-s/.

According the data released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Midland, TX ended the Bridgeport, CT metro area’s reign as the area with the highest per capita income. Take that yankees!

The two counties that make up the Midland metro area had a per capita income of $83,049 compared to the second-place $81,068 for the Bridgeport metro area that includes Norwalk, Stamford, Greenwich and Danbury.

San Francisco, San Jose and Washington, D.C., rounded out the top five metropolitan areas.

The change at the top is the story of two counties, figures show. Midland is heavily dependent on mining, which includes oil and gas, economist David Lenze said. Fairfield County, meanwhile, has an economy centered on the financial services industry.

While there was an $800 million increase in one of the two counties that make up Midland’s statistical area, there was a nearly-corresponding $798 million drop in the financial services industry in Fairfield County, said Lenze, who works at the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The source for income data: http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/lapi/lapi_newsrelease.htm.

At that link click on "Metropolitan Area Table," and a pdf will download: Table 2. Per Capital Personal Income by Metropolitan Area, 2016 - 2018. There are 392 metropolitan areas ranked. Ranking, metropolitan area, and 2018 per capita personal income:

1. Midland, TX: $122,247
2: Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT: #120,630
3. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA: $106,213
4. San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA: $99,424
5. Naples-Marco Island, FL: $92,686
6. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH: $78,694
7. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA: $76,681 (will drop significantly in 2020 after President Trump moves out)
8. Sebastian-Vero Beach, FL: $76,059
9. Napa, CA: $74,984
10: Burnstable, MA: $74,756

Most remarkable about the top ten: look at the delta between the top two and the rest. Then consider this: there is not state income tax for the metropolitan area that is ranked #1. Multiply that $1 per capita income by 1.09 and Midland goes to $133,249.

Then, go one step further. As expensive as it has gotten to live in Midland, it still pales in comparison to the cost of living in those cities ranked #2 to #7. Using a 20% fudge factor (which is very, very conservative), Midland easily goes to $160,000 per annum.

Other metropolitan areas of interest:

24. Minneapolis,St Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI: $62,889
56: Bismarck, ND: $56,564
87: Fargo, ND-MN: $ 52,712
95: Billings, MT: $52,019