Dallas, Texas – In the latest report unveiled by the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey on Thursday, concerning statistics emerged delineating the economic landscape of Dallas-Fort Worth (D-FW) from 2019 to 2022.
Dallas-Fort Worth median income takes a slight dip following the national trend
During this period, the median income in the D-FW region experienced a marginal contraction of approximately 0.85%, falling to $82,823 last year, compared to the inflation-adjusted figure of $83,537 recorded in 2019. This decline mirrored the national trend, albeit to a lesser degree; the national median income suffered a more substantial decrease of 1.6% when adjusted for inflation over the same time frame.
Texas is also seeing dip in median income when adjusted for inflation
Texas as a whole also experienced a considerable downturn in median income, registering a decline of 2.35%—eclipsing the national average—to $72,284 in 2022 from an inflation-adjusted $74,022 in 2019. Despite the overall contraction, an intriguing subtext emerged: the proportion of Dallas-area residents earning in excess of $100,000 annually surged from approximately 35% in 2019 to nearly 42% in 2022, suggesting an increasingly bifurcated economic environment.
The report also elucidated the geographical reconfiguration of income across the region, largely catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic. A striking migration of high-earning Americans from bustling metropolitan areas to peripheral exurbs and rural localities has been observed. Locally, this demographic shift manifested in a transfer of income out of Dallas County, while the suburban counties experienced a concomitant influx of wealth. An analysis conducted by Cullum Clark, the director of the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative, based on IRS data, divulged that between 2020 and 2021, Dallas County witnessed an exodus of nearly 10,000 tax-filing households primarily to Collin, Denton, and Tarrant counties.
Higher income families are moving from Dallas County to Collin County
Moreover, the households that opted to migrate from Dallas County to Collin County generally boasted higher income levels compared to their counterparts relocating in the opposite direction. Notably, Denton County outpaced Collin County in attracting affluent residents, amassing an additional 5,000 tax-filing households from the other three major North Texas counties between 2020 and 2021, thereby augmenting its total taxable income by an estimated $765 million.
These demographic and economic shifts underscore a broader national trend, as communities grapple with the profound ramifications of income disparity exacerbated by the pandemic. The duality of wage stagnation and rising inflation further complicates the economic narrative, as wage increases over the past two years have been insufficient in outpacing inflation, leaving the populace in a precarious financial situation.
