08/08/08 County residents who are tired of the greed, violence, drugs, gangs and other wonders Fairfield County are heading to Greener pastures

Ffld. County gains $, loses people

Despite being home to the most affluent metropolitan area in the nation, Fairfield County is seeing more people move out than move in.

The U.S. Commerce Department released two reports today tracking the fortunes in money and people of the nation's counties.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis said the Bridgeport-Stamford area had per capita income of $80,192 in 2007, the highest in the United States.

Per capita income is the total amount of income earned by all residents divided by the region's total number of residents.

The BEA said residents in the Stamford-Bridgeport region, which includes Greenwich, earned more than $71 billion in 2007. That's up from $66 billion earned in 2006.

The Naples, Fla., region ranked a distant second in 2007, with per capita income of $61,788.

The Hartford region ranked 17th with per capita income of $47,641 and the New Haven-Milford area ranked 33rd with $43,820.

The BEA ranks only the metropolitan areas with population of more than 100,000.

While money flowed into Fairfield County in 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau said residents flowed from the region. Fairfield County was the state's only county to have more people move out than in since the 2000 Census.

The Census Bureau said between 2000 and 2007, 19,938 people moved out of Fairfield County. The only reason the county gained population was due to births during that period. There were 86,025 babies born in the county since 2000.

Fairfield County remained the most populous county in the state, with 895,015 residents in 2007. It ranked 53rd nationally.

Hartford County, with a population of 876,824, ranked 54th in the nation and New Haven, with a population of 845,494 ranked 58th.

Source: Connecticut Post

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