Income and Occupations in the United States Counties

Income and Occupations in the United States Counties Morton W. Scripter* Resurrection City, U.S.A., and the Poor People's March on Wash- - ington, D. C, are contemporary manifestations of a problem of considerable practical consequences in the United States; and large quantities of public monies are expended through welfare programs and the War on Poverty to soften the effects of and to alleviate poverty in the United States. One facet of the poverty problem is the inability of individuals to earn an adequate income, and thus some economic research is directed towards an understanding of income and wage differentials on the basis of sex, race, age, occupations, skill, and education of wage earners.1 Yet the magnitude of personal income displays recognizable geographical patterns in the United States,2 and thus it is both interesting and necessary to provide a * Dr. Scripter is Assistant Professor of Geography, San Fernando Valley State College, Northridge, California 91324. This paper was read at the 31st annual meeting of the Association. Research was supported by the San Fernando Valley State College Foundation and by funds granted to the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin by the Office of Economic Opportunity pursuant to the provisions of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. 1 For example, see Volume 15 in Studies in Income and Wealth, Conference on Research in Income and Wealth and National Bureau of Economic Research, New York, 1952; Regional Income, Volume 21 in Studies in Income and Wealth, Conference on Research in Income and Wealth and Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1957; and W. S. Woytinsky and associates, Employment and Income in the United States, The Twentieth Century Fund, New York, 1953. An extensive bibliography of income studies is found in Chapter Four, "Regional Income Estimation and Social Accounting," of W. Isard, Methods of Regional Analysis: An Introduction to Regional Science, The M.LT. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1960. 2 For detailed information see author's doctoral dissertation, "An Occupational Model for the Geography of Income," University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1967, available as microfilm number 67-17106 from University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 101 102ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS geographical explanation for the distribution of personal income, not only for the advancement of knowledge but also for the formulation of public policy. Geographical Patterns of Income There are at least five characteristics of the pattern of mean personal income3 in the United States which are visually perceptible and which may suggest relationships to other geographic variables (Figure 1 ) :* ( 1 ) The South stands out markedly as an area of belowaverage income. This below-average area extends northward along the common peripheries of the Plains and the Corn Belt to the Canadian border with only a small interruption. (2) The Economic Core Region of the United States is an area of above-average income, extending from the western periphery of the Industrial Interior through Megalopolis. (3) The western United States is an area of above-average income with the countries of the Pacific Coast states most consistently above average. (4) Strings of counties with aboveaverage income occur along parts of the Gulf Coast. (5) Dispersed counties with above-average incomes are scattered among the masses of below-average counties in the South.5 "The county values utilized in this study are the "Mean Income of Individuals with Income" for the calendar year 1959 for individuals fourteen years old and older and include wage or salary income, self-employment income, and other income. For a detailed description of the categories of income, see page LXXIX of the introductory section of the U. S. Summary, a volume of the U. S. Census of Popuhtion: 1960. The income values are reported in Table 86, "Income in 1959 of Families and Persons, and Weeks, Worked in 1959, for Counties: 1960" of the individual state volumes. 4 Figure 1 is a generalization for a black and white reproduction of the original research map, which was a ten-color, eight-class, county, choroplethic map. Some details of the original maps are not revealed on the present map. The near-average income class encompasses county income values in the range $2,528 to $3,098, which includes 898...