Wyoming residents’ wallets are swelling thanks to an oil and gas boom that has pushed their wealth above their Colorado neighbors, according to a new study.
Preliminary numbers for 2007 show that at $40,655, Wyoming’s per capita personal income ranked 6th in the country, compared to the No. 11 spot it held in 2005, according to the study by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Colorado, which ranked 7th in per capita income in 2005, slipped to 10th last year, with residents earning $39,491 per capita.
“We have been supplanted by Wyoming,” said Tom Clark, Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. executive vice president. “We have always been in the top 15 of states, mostly driven by a highly educated workforce.”
But Wyoming’s boom-driven success isn’t as much a threat to Colorado’s position as the state’s poorly performing schools are, he added.
“If we want people to have greater opportunities, it is all about income and all about education. We tend to compete for the higher income jobs and competition for them is global.”
Also in the study: Pitkin County, where Aspen is located, was the third wealthiest in the country.
Pitkin County’s per capita personal income was more than $86,000.
The only other counties in the country wealthier than Pitkin County are New York County and Teton County in Wyoming.
The study also shows that Crowley County in eastern Colorado is the poorest in the state with a per capita income of almost $17,000. Denver County’s per capita personal income was little more than $50,000.
Connecticut led the nation with a per capita income of $54,117, 40 percent above the national average. Mississippi had the lowest per capita income of all states, $28,845, 25 percent below the national average.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
