Which city or town in Cumberland County is No. 1 in personal income?

By one statistic, Hope Mills residents are the most well-off financially in Cumberland County.

By another, the average person living in Fayetteville makes the most money.

Meanwhile, among Cumberland County’s three largest municipalities, the people of Spring Lake trail far behind in individual and household income and lead in poverty. This is according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Cumberland County has six other small towns — Godwin, Falcon, Wade, Eastover, Stedman and Linden. The Census Bureau’s data page did not have figures for them as it only lists towns with at least 5,000 people.

Here is a look at where the money is:

Fayetteville leads in per-person income

Fayetteville, population nearly 209,000, has the most per capita income in Cumberland County. The average person makes $27,223, the Census Bureau said. The figure is in 2021 dollars and is a five-year average of 2017 to 2021.

Hope Mills placed second with $24,446 in average income for its nearly 18,000 residents. Spring Lake, with nearly 12,000 people, fared the worst with $19,905.

Cumberland County as a whole had an average of $26,899 income per person for 336,699 people.

Median household income: Hope Mills wins

Hope Mills leads Cumberland County in median income — $49,802 — among the families living in its more than 6,000 homes and apartments.

The median income is the point where half of the households have less income, and half of the households have more income. Median is often used instead of an average because a few people with unusually high incomes could skew the results.

The census figure is a five-year average, running from 2017 to 2021.

Fayetteville’s 80,000 households follow with $48,923, and Spring Lake, with 4,200 households, trails at $39,659.

Countywide, the median income for 125,000 households is $50,746, putting the county as a whole ahead of the municipalities.

Spring Lake: Lowest in income, highest in poverty

With Spring Lake’s per capita and household incomes well behind those of Fayetteville and Hope Mills, it is logical that the census data says the town runs ahead of them in poverty.

In Spring Lake, 22.1% of the people live in poverty, the data says, vs. 19.1% in Fayetteville and 15.8% in Hope Mills. The countywide poverty rate is 15.8%. All of these rates are above the state and national rates.

The Census Bureau’s poverty rate is calculated based on household income, the number of people living in each household, and how many of the people are children age 17 and younger. For example, according to the Census Bureau, a family of five in 2022, made up of two children, two parents and an elderly relative, and with a total household income below $35,801, was living in poverty.

Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@fayobserver.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville, Hope Mills lead in personal income in Cumberland County