Missouri and the Nation Transfer Payments as a Percent of Total Personal Income Transfer payments is another name for government entitlement payments to qualified persons for the purpose of sustaining income. The largest transfer payments currently are Social Security and health services about equally divided between Medicare (only persons age 65 and older are entitled) and Medicaid (government payment of health care services for low-income families). Transfer payments also include such government assistance as unemployment compensation, Veteran's benefits, food stamps, TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and several other forms of supplementary income. These entitlements have become so significant that they accounted for 12.9 percent of total personal income of U.S citizens in 2000. Generally, states having a relatively large population of retirement age population or of low-income families will have the largest amount of transfer payments. As shown in Table 1, transfer payments accounted for the highest proportion of 2000 total personal income in West Virginia (22.8 percent of total personal income). West Virginia has that distinction because it is also the state having the lowest median family income in the U.S. Coincidentally, the state in which transfer payments account for the second lowest percent of total personal income (9.4 percent) is Virginia, adjacent to West Virginia. Missouri's Rank in Transfer Payment Income Missouri ranked 33rd in 2000 among the states in percent of total personal income accounted for by transfer payments (14.6 percent). Missouri ranks above the national average in transfer payments as a proportion of income because: (1) it ranks below the national median household income and, therefore, receives more than average low income entitlements like Medicaid, food stamps, etc.; and, (2) because it ranks above the national average in percent of population age 65 and older and, therefore, receives relatively larger amounts of Medicare and Social Security. Map 1 click map for larger version The accompanying map shows that states in which the highest proportion of total personal income derives from transfer payments are states having a relatively high proportion of low-income population. Those states are concentrated in the Mid-South and Appalachia. Other states having a relatively high proportion of transfer payment income included Montana and North Dakota, both having a relatively high proportion of low-income and retirement age population. Also included is Florida, which has the nation's highest percentage of retirement age population. Missouri and Its Neighbors As encountered in other measures reported in this part of Missouri and the Nation tends to rank above its four neighboring states to the south on most measures pertaining to income and education and ranks below the four northern neighbors on such measures. As stated above, Missouri ranks 33rd among the states in transfer payment income as a proportion of total personal income. That ranks below Oklahoma which ranks 37th, Tennessee which ranks 40th, Kentucky which ranks 47th and Arkansas which ranks 49th. In contrast, transfer payments account for a lower percent of total personal income in all four of Missouri's neighboring states to the north. Illinois leads with a rank of 13th, followed by Nebraska which ranks 19th, Kansas which ranks 22nd and Iowa which ranks 30th. Even though Illinois has a sizable low-income population in the major cities, transfer payments account for a low percentage of total personal income because it has very high total personal income. Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas all have relatively small low-income populations, thus reducing the total amount of transfer payments entitled to the populations of those states. Changes in Transfer Payments During the 1990s Tables 2 and 3 report the total amount of transfer payments to each state in 2000 (Table 3) and 1990 (Table 4). These tables show that the state receiving the least amount of transfer payments in both 1990 and 2000 was Wyoming. Total transfer payments to Wyoming in 1990 were $885.3 million in 1990. Payments increased to $1.601 billion by 2000. At the other extreme was California, which received $69.8 billion in 1990. Payments increased to $120.6 billion in 2000. Missouri had transfer payments of $11.9 billion 1990 which was the 38th largest total among the states. By 2000 Missouri transfer payments had increased to $22.3 billion, which remained the 38th largest total among the states. Table 4 shows the dollar amount of increase in transfer payments from 1990 to 2000. The states are ranked from the smallest to the largest increase. Table 5 shows that transfer payments increased in Wyoming by $715.4 million between 1990 and 2000 but, at the other extreme, transfer payments increased by $50.7 billion in California between 1990 and 2000. Missouri transfer payments increased by $10.4 billion during the 1990s - the 38th largest increase. Table 5 shows the percentage increase in dollar amount of transfer payments between 1990 and 2000. For example, Table 6 shows that the $715.4 million dollar increase in Wyoming during the 1990s was an 80.8 percent increase - the 26th largest percentage increase in the nation. Similarly, California had only a 72.7 percent increase during the 1990s even though California continued to be the largest recipient in 2000. California's rate of increase was relatively low. Missouri's $10.4 billion dollar increase in transfer payments during the 1990s was an 87.0 percent increase which ranked 31st among the states. That was only slighter larger than the national rate of increase during the 1990s. As shown in Table 5, the states with the lowest rate of increase during the 1990s were generally upper Midwestern states with North Dakota (56.0 percent increase) having the nation's smallest increase. Other low increase states included Iowa (3rd), Wisconsin (4th), Michigan (5th), Ohio (7th), Illinois (9th), Minnesota (10th) and Kansas (11th). States with the greatest relative increases were Nevada with a 10-year increase of 129.6 percent, Alaska with an increase of 122.2 percent, North Carolina with an increase of 114.0 percent, etc. Other large increase states were New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona, each of which had large increases in population during the 1990s. However, some other states such as Tennessee and South Carolina had large increases in transfer payments although their population increase was modest. Detailed Tables Total Transfer Payments, 2000, for All U.S. States HTML PDF Total Transfer Payments, 1990, for All U.S. States HTML PDF Transfer Payments as a Percent of Total Personal Income, 2000, for All U.S. States HTML PDF Transfer Payments as a Percent of Total Personal Income, 1990, for All U.S. States HTML PDF Change in Transfer Payments, 1990-2000, for All U.S. States HTML PDF Percent Change in Transfer Payments, 1990-2000, for All U.S. States HTML PDF