Page 5 - AT

A5
U.S. NEWS Friday 20 december 2019
Income growth greatest in

tech hubs over past 5 years

By MIKE SCHNEIDER need to redouble their ef- to be more rural and have
Associated Press forts to court non-college lower wages," he said.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — voters in less prosperous In some areas, the growth
From the middle of the districts in the run-up to the in household income was
Obama administration to 2020 election." enormous. In House Speak-
the midpoint of the Trump The greater income growth er Nancy Pelosi's district, lo-
presidency, household in- in Democratic-leaning dis- cated in San Francisco, the
come grew the most in tricts likely had to do with epicenter of the last de-
tech and entertainment the fact that they're in cit- cade's tech boom, house-
centers like Austin, Texas; ies where incomes tend to hold income jumped by a In this June 26, 2015, file photo, heavy traffic moves away from
Nashville, Tennessee; and be higher, Vitner said. third from almost $110,500 and toward the downtown area of Nashville, Tenn.
large chunks of the West "Republican districts tend to more than $150,000.q Associated Press
Coast. Congressional dis-
tricts that attract highly ed-
ucated workers around ar-
eas like Denver and Char-
lotte, North Carolina, were
among the communities
that saw mean household
income rise the most from
2013 to 2018, according to
new figures released Thurs-
day by the U.S. Census Bu-
reau.
Other congressional dis-
tricts that had the highest
household income growth
were in or around Houston;
Pittsburgh; Provo, Utah;
parts of South Florida and
the wealthy retirement ha-
ven of Sarasota, Florida.
Most of the income growth
in these areas came from
wages, said Mark Vitner, a
senior economist at Wells
Fargo Securities.
"Metro areas tied to tech-
nology have tended to
perform best, although
global gateways and en-
ergy markets had their mo-
ment in the sun earlier in
the decade," Vitner said.
Household income grew
more in Democratic-lean-
ing districts than Republi-
can ones, according to an
Associated Press analysis of
the data by congressional
districts. Household income
grew by an average of
more than $12,000 in Dem-
ocratic-leaning congres-
sional districts, compared
to more than $9,000 in Re-
publican-leaning districts.
What impact that has go-
ing into the 2020 elections
remains to be seen, ex-
perts said.
"Surely new evidence of in-
come level rises in coastal
and more highly educated
districts relative to others
plays to the Democrats'
strength," said William
Frey, a senior fellow at The
Brookings Institution. "But
it also makes clear they