States Where Incomes Are Rising The Fastest: BEA

They don’t call them oil booms for nothing.

An oil rush in North Dakota has helped the income of the state's residents grow at a rate significantly higher than the national average over the course of last year, according to recent data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. California, Texas and Iowa are some of the other states that exceeded the nationwide average of about 5 percent for personal income growth.

Over the past few years, workers have flocked to North Dakota to take advantage of plentiful jobs on oil rigs as well as in the state's boomtowns. The influx of workers in the state has been so great that schools are now overcrowded and housing is scarce. In February, a Walmart in Williston, North Dakota had to evict a camp of oil workers who'd taken up residence in its parking lot due to limited housing options.

While personal income may be rising according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that many Americans wallets might actually be getting skinnier. Last year, real wages, which account for rising prices, fell by about 2 percent due to a high jobless rate that led employees to work for less money. The contradiction may in part be explained by the fact personal income includes all income sources, such as dividends and interest.

Check out the states with the fastest growth in personal income:

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Comments

[Kenneth Bushway]

02:49 PM on 05/06/2012

The only problem is that this makes people believe in oil, gas, and coal. They forget the fact that high wages won't always be the way, that eventually these supplies will diminish and become harder to find and extract. That these fuels no matter how much drill drill drill won't make us energy secure, because you can't be secure with just three types of in-efficient fuel.

[Kenneth Bushway]

02:36 PM on 05/06/2012

Then how come these states also have some of the highest amount of poor children and people (like Texas)?

[regor]

02:14 PM on 04/27/2012

The District of Columbia is not a state!!!!

[intotheabyss]

02:03 PM on 04/27/2012

Perhaps these mostly red states can stop mooching federal tax dollars from the blue states now that they are so successful. What a load of bunk. Skewing numbers to show a particular outcome is so obvious. What is the over all standard of living in these states? What's the gap between rich and poor? HP gets more biased toward the right with every passing day.

[EnvironChief]

02:14 PM on 04/27/2012

so, when something is report that you don't like it's "biased toward the right"???

[shp]

02:48 PM on 04/27/2012

Standard of living is objective.

Many people are happy with clean running water, reasonably priced electricity, and reliable phone, internet, and cable services.

Whereas liberals have to have a StarBucks on every corner.

[intotheabyss]

03:44 PM on 04/27/2012

Standard of living is paramount if wages don't cover the cost of basic necessities. Many red states have a lower standard of living than blue states.

[Kenneth Bushway]

02:51 PM on 05/06/2012

what? Got to admit that is the first time I heard that.

[OutAtFirst]

02:00 PM on 04/27/2012

If you've ever been in an energy-related boom town anywhere in the west, you'll know that upturns like this are unpredictable and come with long-term consequences: little or no infrastructure planning; lots of poor-quality, quickly constructed housing; fast-food franchises on every corner; dramatic increases in crime; and many other problems that turn former rural communities into semi-urban hellholes..

[truthSerum888]

02:04 PM on 04/27/2012

the oil companies couldn't care less, they're an occupying army that will usurp every profitable resource without significantly improving the town's resources or long term viability-

[CJHAN]

02:07 PM on 04/27/2012

I live in Oklahoma and that is exactly whats going on here. We are building Hotels and shoping centers but no roads or schools or Hospitals infact one of the county hospital is lossing bed traffic is near choking in a small citty of 90,000 and schools are overloaded in some cases 40 kidis in a class. Our governer is trying to cut taxes On the top tax bracket so when the oil bubble busts as it always does our tax revenue will fall off and there is no way they would ever raise taxes on the rich here so the rest of us will see higher taxes and fees.

[RockyChristine]

09:08 AM on 06/03/2012

Another Oklahoman here. Very true. Working in the oil fields, you get seriously scary roads and a long ways to hospitals, grocery stores, and restaurants that aren't fast food. The boom won't last, but we might as well try to make something good of it while it's here.

[Copyright]

01:55 PM on 04/27/2012

Thanks to Governor Walker, Wisconsin is the new Mississippi of the North. Way to go_CHUMP!!
RECALL!!!!!!

[AlonzoQuijana]

01:44 PM on 04/27/2012

DC is growing because oif the massive increase in government (and the lobbyists who feed off it).

CA because of cap gains in Silicon Valley. Califiornia income is heavily -- dangerously -- skewed to the top 1%. The Facebook IPO may actually help reduce the deficit.

The rest make sense: ag and oil.

[Bombastic1892]

01:48 PM on 04/27/2012

The Facebook IPO is absurd, and is just going to add to a tech bubble. Companies lost $200+ million trying to advertise on facebook last year. Marketing on facebook has proven to be a failure, and most companies have given up. The only way FB is worth that much is if they are selling information...

[CJHAN]

02:10 PM on 04/27/2012

I thought the same thing. FB is another bubble waiting to burst.

[PC Contrarian]

01:24 PM on 04/27/2012

Two surprises:
1. Iowa, for being #2; I didn't expect them to even be in the top 10.
2, DC, for being #9; I expected them to be even higher, since Obama came to town.

[smpj]

01:36 PM on 04/27/2012

All those people in D.C. who Obama hasn't really helped and never will help out of poverty are keeping the percentage lower than expected.

[debbiedowner]

01:15 PM on 04/27/2012

Uh oh, I'm thinking those 'supply-siders' might be on to something...

Meanwhile, with Keynesians at the federal level, the best GDP growth generated for the first quarter running $Trillion+ deficits was a blistering hot 2.2%, barely enough to keep job growth in the plus.

[smpj]

01:42 PM on 04/27/2012

The Big Correction, when it happens, and it will happen, is going to be hellish.

[RightinWA]

01:06 PM on 04/27/2012

SHHH - dont tell this to BHO... he will want to take credit for it....

[Stormcoming]

12:58 PM on 04/27/2012

lots of red states, I note

[Far Outlier]

01:49 PM on 04/27/2012

A whole lot of red states, which only makes sense. DC is there because it is the ultimate blue "state" and as such is overrun with people feeding very well at the Government tough. Which leaves only CA. Very surprised. How can a broke states have such good income growth? Time to raise taxes in CA isn't it?

[CJHAN]

02:18 PM on 04/27/2012

Most Of the red state are riding an Oil bubble ( you guys said Obama was killing the oil industrie) But that bubble will burst and so will those red states as they always do and become even more dependent on the federal government then they already are. I live in oklahoma and the oil bubble is already starting to retract companies like haliburton and chesapeake are already starting to layoff.

[smpj]

12:46 PM on 04/27/2012

So there's real money in extractable fluorocarbons?

Who knew?

[boyd5b]

12:41 PM on 04/27/2012

D.C. is not a state, no matter how much the Huffpost wants it to be.

[smpj]

12:50 PM on 04/27/2012

And the poor of D.C. surely kept the percentage way down. Some of the richest suburbs in the United States surround Washington D.C. No surprise. That's where most of the nation's money, taxed, borrowed and lobbied with, ends up.

[Bombastic1892]

01:50 PM on 04/27/2012

100% of $100 bill pulled from circulation had traces of cocaine on them. I'm sure all the poor folks in DC are the ones buying blow for $60+ a gram...

[Right Girl]

12:05 PM on 04/27/2012

No surprise that D.C. is #2 since Obama continues to grow the government beyond anyone's wildest imagination.

[wandering girl]

12:28 PM on 04/27/2012

actually, that's a lie. and even repeated ad nauseam, it's still a lie. President Obama has actually *reduced* government since he took office.

[smpj]

12:53 PM on 04/27/2012

You can't be serious, unless your deluded.

[Right Girl]

03:20 PM on 04/27/2012

I heard a speech Obama gave today at a Military Base in Georgia. He said "I have added at least 200,000 government jobs since I've been in office." Google it ... and think next time before you call someone a liar ... it's want most liberals do when they don't like reality, and it only reinforces the fact that they're talking off the cuff and are inherently uninformed and/or disingenuous.

[boyd5b]

12:40 PM on 04/27/2012

You got the list backwards. Iowa was actually number two, D.C. was number nine. But it is funny that the Huffpost loves to count D.C. as a state.

[T4Timbuktu]

11:51 AM on 04/27/2012

What, no most are "Red States?

[wandering girl]

12:29 PM on 04/27/2012

oil & gas. no big surprise there.

[TMS3100]

12:29 PM on 04/27/2012

Nope..the left hates success.

[smpj]

01:02 PM on 04/27/2012

Successful governmental growth seems to suit them perfectly fine, though.