Where are incomes keeping up with inflation in Missouri and Illinois?
ST. LOUIS – Inflation has made it tougher to stretch dollars further compared to years past. However, in some cases, depending on where you live in Missouri or Illinois, income growth has outpaced the rampant rise in prices.
According to the World Bank Group, a global financial institution, the U.S. inflation rate for 2022 was 8%, the highest yearly mark in nearly four decades.
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SmartAsset, a financial technology company, recently analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data in a study involving nearly 350 of the nation’s largest cities and ranked them based on income growth. The study was called “Where Income Increased Most Over One Year” and was published last October.
The findings revealed that only around half of major U.S. cities measured kept up with the 2022 inflation rate, and dozens reported income losses from 2021 to 2022.
Income trends in Missouri
Based on the 8% inflation clip from 2022, only one Missouri city featured in the study outpaced that rate in average wages. That was Springfield, Missouri with a 8.59% change in average income from 2021 to 2022. It was ranked the 159th best U.S. city in terms of income gain.
St. Louis noticed a nearly 6% growth in wages in that same timeframe, but that clip falls just short of the 8% U.S. mark, meaning that wages were still undercut by inflation.
Kansas City, the state’s largest city, showed a rather alarming trend, with average wages decreasing roughly 2% from 2021 to 2022.
SmartAsset offered the following data on Missouri:
CITY | 2022 INCOME | 2021 INCOME | PERCENT CHANGE | OVERALL U.S. RANK (#/349) |
Springfield | $45,400 | $41,808 | 8.49% | 159 |
St. Louis | $52,847 | $49,965 | 5.77% | 216 |
Independence | $53,082 | $53,082 | 0.31% | 305 |
Kansas City | $62,175 | $63,396 | -1.93% | 319 |
Columbia | $56,067 | $58,067 | -4.28% | 337 |
Lee’s Summit | $89,140 | $100,246 | -11.08% | 348 |
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Income trends in Illinois
Based on the 8% inflation clip from 2022, four Illinois cities featured in the study outpaced that rate in average wages. Rockford, Illinois, led the way with a 21.27% average increase in wages from 2021 to 2022 and ranked as the 19th best city in terms of income gain. Peoria, Joliet and Naperville all also outpaced their wage growth compared to the national inflation rate.
Chicago, like St. Louis, was able to produce around a 6% growth in average wages from 2021 to 2022, but falls just short of the national inflation rate. Elgin and Aurora also saw income gains, but not above the 8% threshold.
Only one Illinois city reported an income loss in the same timeframe. In Springfield, Illinois, average wages dipped nearly 4%.
SmartAsset offered the following data on Illinois:
CITY | 2022 INCOME | 2021 INCOME | PERCENT CHANGE | OVERALL U.S. RANK (#/349) |
Rockford | $53,994 | $44,525 | 21.27% | 19 |
Peoria | $55,955 | $47,287 | 18.33% | 30 |
Joliet | $86,928 | $76,495 | 13.64 | 69 |
Naperville | $140,831 | $129,664 | 8.61% | 157 |
Elgin | $85,167 | $79,120 | 7.64% | 174 |
Chicago | $70,386 | $66,576 | 5.72% | 217 |
Aurora | $84,578 | $83,996 | 0.69% | 302 |
Springfield | $60,082 | $62,505 | -3.88% | 333 |
Elsewhere in the U.S.
Which U.S. cities are generally seeing the largest rates of income growth? Several cities in Arizona, Florida and California rounded out the Top 20 in income rises.
At the top spot was the high-earning Houston-area community of The Woodlands, Texas, with more than 31% growth in median income, up to $137,335 last year.
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