Economic landscape of Dallas-Fort Worth: Report from 2019-2022

The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey released a report on Thursday detailing the economic conditions in Dallas-Fort Worth (D-FW) from 2019 to 2022.

According to Dallas Metro News, from 2019 to 2022, the median income in the D-FW region decreased by about 0.85%, resulting in a value of $82,823 in the last year. This was down from the inflation-adjusted $83,537 in 2019. This decline was similar to the national trend. However, nationally, the median income dropped by 1.6% after adjusting for inflation during the same period.

The state of Texas saw a decline of 2.35% in median income, reaching $72,284 in 2022 from the inflation-adjusted value of $74,022 in 2019. An interesting detail from the report was that the percentage of Dallas residents with an annual income of over $100,000 increased. It went up from about 35% in 2019 to 42% in 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic influenced income distribution across regions. Many high-income individuals moved from urban areas to the surrounding suburbs and rural areas. As a result, Dallas County experienced an income decrease, while the neighboring suburban counties saw an increase in wealth. Cullum Clark, director of the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative, found that from 2020 to 2021, about 10,000 tax-filing households moved from Dallas County to Collin, Denton, and Tarrant counties.

Households moving from Dallas County to Collin County generally had higher incomes than those moving the other way. Denton County attracted more high-income residents than Collin County. Denton County gained an extra 5,000 tax-filing households from the main North Texas counties between 2020 and 2021, increasing its total taxable income by roughly $765 million.

These changes reflect a broader national trend. The gap in income, worsened by the pandemic, poses challenges for communities. The combination of stagnant wages and increasing inflation has led to wages not keeping up with inflation, placing financial strain on many people.