Ag money: LaMoure County ranks 14th in U.S. for highest average income

The boom in the state’s Oil Patch and strong farm prices have given a big boost to personal incomes in North Dakota, putting per capita pay in some places on par with the most famously rich counties in the U.S. Three North Dakota counties — Williams, Billings and LaMoure — posted average personal incomes in 2011 that place them sixth ($81,170), 11th ($76,798), and 14th ($74,875), respectively among the nation’s 3,113 counties, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

By: By Helmut Schmidt, Forum Communications, The Jamestown Sun