docs/us_economy/economy_personal_income_county_year

economy_personal_income_county_year

BEA per-capita personal income by county and year (A1). Tier A. History 1969-present.

tier aadmin_recordeconomybeapersonal_incomeper_capitacountytime_series
grain
county-year
years
1969 – 2024
cadence
Annual (typically November release for prior year)
overview

overview

All 3,144 counties x 56 years. BEA produces a complete county-level personal income series.

current vintage — 2024 (released November 2025)

history — BEA county personal income: 1969 to present

provenance

source & licensing

authority
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
dataset
BEA Regional Economic Accounts (REIS) — Per-Capita Personal Income by County
license
Public domain (U.S. Federal Government work)
citation
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal Income by County (CAINC1, CAINC4), 1969-2024.
schema

fields

nametypedefinition
country_idkeystringISO alpha-2 country code (always 'US' for domestic tables).Part of primary key.
county_idkeystring5-character FIPS code identifying the county.Part of primary key. Joins dim.counties on county_id.
county_namestringHuman-readable county name corresponding to county_id.
note_refstringBEA footnote reference code attached to this data cell, if any. Look up the corresponding note text in BEA source documentation for data-quality or methodology caveats.
per_capita_personal_incomefloat64 · dollars (nominal)BEA per-capita personal income for the county and year, sourced from BEA Regional Economic Accounts table A1. Multiply by unit_multiplier to obtain the true dollar value. Higher values indicate greater average personal income per resident.
state_idkeystring2-character FIPS code identifying the state.Part of primary key. Joins dim.states on state_id.
unit_labelstringHuman-readable label describing the unit of measurement as reported by BEA (e.g., 'Dollars'). Used alongside unit_multiplier to interpret the stored value.
unit_multiplierstringNumeric scale factor supplied by BEA that converts the stored value to the unit described by unit_label (e.g., '1' for dollars, '1000' for thousands of dollars).
yearkeyint64Reference year of the observation.Part of primary key.
relationships

joins

primary key
county_id, state_id, country_id, year
common joins
dim.geographies on geo_id
demographics_population_county_year for cross-checking population denominator
economy_household_income_distribution_county_year on (county_id, year)
usage

how to use this table

method

BEA combines wages and salaries (QCEW), proprietors' income, dividends/interest/rent, and personal current transfer receipts (SSA, VA, Medicare, etc.). Per-capita = total / PEP population.

do not use for

Sub-county geography; high-frequency tracking (annual only); GDP comparison (personal income measures residents' incomes; GDP measures production).

known issues

Periodic revisions to historical series; check unit_label and unit_multiplier (some vintages report in thousands).

last updated · Jul 7, 2026