Highs, lows for Provo area

WASHINGTON — Where could average personal income be lower than in the Mexico border town of El Paso, the Ozarks around Fort Smith, Ark., or Appalachia surrounding Johnson City, Tenn.?

The answer, unfortunately, is the Provo-Orem, Logan and St. George metropolitan areas in Utah.

They finished in the bottom 10 of the nation's 361 metropolitan areas for per capita personal income in 2002 — worse than almost all areas commonly stereotyped as poor, according to new U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data released this week.

Provo-Orem finished sixth worst in the nation with a per capita personal income of $19,594 in 2002, which dropped from $19,697 in 2001. (That drop came while nationally, per capita personal income rose 2.3 percent).

Logan was eighth worst in the nation with a per capita personal income of $19,772, which was up from $19,564 a year earlier.

St. George was ninth worst nationally with a per capita personal income of $20,059, up from $19,856 a year earlier.

Provo-Orem dropped from eighth worst last year to sixth worst this year; Logan improved slightly from seventh worst to eighth worst nationally; and St. George remained ninth worst both years.

Also, personal income in Provo-Orem is only 63.4 percent of the national average of $30,906 per person (down from 64.5 percent in 2001) ; in Logan it is 64 percent of average (down from 64.1 percent in 2001); and in St. George, it is 64.9 percent (down from 65.0 percent in 2001).

Among other Utah metropolitan areas, Ogden-Clearfield finished at No. 252 nationally out of 361 with a per capita personal income of $25,168 in 2002, up from $24,655 in 2001.

Salt Lake City finished at No. 130 of 361 with a per capita personal income of $28,674, up from $28,372 a year earlier. It was the only metropolitan area in Utah to escape the bottom half nationally.

James A. Wood, director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah, said a combination of low wages, big families and large populations of students or retirees put Provo-Orem, Logan and St. George low in the ratings every year.

"We are a low-wage state when you look at average pay per job," he said. "We are in the bottom third nationally, so we have that going against us out of the chute. Then we also have large families."