Income up in region, data show

Published: November 27, 2012 3:00 a.m.

Income up in region, data show

Staff and wire reports

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis says northeast Indiana’s per capita personal income as a percentage of the nation’s per capita personal income is up, area officials reported Monday.

In 2010, residents in the region made 79.4 percent on the dollar, and in 2011 that number rose to 79.9 percent.

“We now have three years of data that indicate that we have arrested the decline in per capita personal income,” said John Stafford, director of the Community Research Institute at IPFW.

“Since 1994, the percentage has been declining and we now have reason to believe that we have turned the corner. We must stop the decline before we can begin the trek upward, and that is what this new data shows us is happening.”

Regional leaders behind the Vision 2020 initiative have used the per capita personal income chart as a rallying cry for the region. The main goal behind the initiative is to reverse the decline in per capita income relative to the nation.

“Regional leaders have cause to celebrate today as we now have data that shows that the regional collaboration here is making a difference,” said Mike Packnett, chairman of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership’s governing board.

Packnett is president and CEO of Parkview Health.