Cleveland Wages Pages is a personal web site posted by Bill Callahan to share information and ideas about the "income issue" in Cleveland. The data presentation and opinions on this site are mine alone, unless otherwise attributed.

Got something to say about all this? E-mail me at [email protected].

"It's the income, stupid!"

September, 2002

Here's a headline you haven't seen in the Plain Dealer:

Cleveland is poorest of top 50 U.S. cities

But it's true -- or at least it's what the new U.S. Census tells us. Look a little further down this page for the details, but here's the nub of it: The average personal income of all Cleveland residents in 1999 was the lowest among the nation's fifty largest municipalities.

That makes us literally the poorest (to be precise, the lowest-income) big-city population in the nation. (MORE)

After twenty years of "Cleveland's comeback", the results are in: It didn't work!

By the only standard that really matters to most Cleveland residents -- our ability to make a living, support our families, get ahead economically -- the city of Cleveland is still right where we were twenty years ago... at the bottom of the national pile.

Per capita income, 50 biggest U.S. cities, 1999
(Source: 2000 U.S. Census, Demographic Profiles for cities, Table DP-3)

The new income figures from the U.S. Census are unambiguous. Among the 50 biggest U.S. cities, Cleveland in 1999 was 50th in residents' per capita income, and 49th in median household income.

Expanding the comparison group to include the sixty-seven biggest U.S. cities -- all those that had more than a quarter of a million residents in 1999 -- we find Cleveland was:

• 65th out of 67 in per capita income;

• 65th out of 67 in median household income; and

• 60th out of 67 in the average amount earned by a full-time, year-round worker
  
  (See the full Excel spreadsheet -- Cleveland incomes in 1999 compared to all U.S. cities with current populations of 250,000 or more)

If we look at changes over the past twenty years, this picture does not improve. There were 57 U.S. cities above the quarter-million mark in the 1980 Census. At that time, Cleveland's per capita income of $5,770 was the fifth lowest (i.e. number 53 of 57). Cleveland's household median income of $12,277 was ninth lowest (number 49 of 57). How much has Cleveland's "comeback" improved our place in the standings? Compared to the same 57 cities:

• Cleveland's per capita income slid from 53rd to 56th, staying ahead of only Newark.

• Cleveland's household median income fell from 49th to 55th, edging only Miami and Buffalo.

With the 1979 figures converted to 1999 dollars, the census numbers show:

• a total increase of just 8% in Cleveland's real per capita income over the twenty year period (compared to a 57-city average of 25%)... and

• an 8% decrease in real household median income for Clevelanders (compared to an average 8% increase across the 57-city sample.)

• Adjusted for inflation, Cleveland's twenty-year increase in per capita income was only about a thousand dollars -- one of the smallest gains among major cities, as graphically shown by this chart.
  
  (See the full Excel spreadsheet -- Cleveland incomes in 1980 and 2000 Censuses compared to U.S. cities with more than 250,000 residents in 1979)

TEN-CITY COMPARISON...

Here's a chart showing Cleveland's per capita income in 1979 and 1999 in comparison to nine other cities that started with similar income and poverty situations in 1979...

And another chart showing how Cleveland stacked up against the same nine comparable cities in the 1999 earnings of a typical full-time, year-round worker.

Why these cities? Explanation in this Word document.