Chuuk State Census Report - pacificweb.org

Chapter 11. Income2000 FSM Census of Chuuk State($647). The primary source of income for the state of Chuuk in 1999 was not wages and salary (25.5percent), butremittances from within FSM (61.0percent) and remittances from outside FSM (26.8percent). This was a change from1993 when wages and salary accounted for 58.8percent of all sources of income, remittances from within FSM was30.2percent, and from outside FSM was 16.7percent.In both 1994 and 2000 censuses, seven sources of income were specified. The numbers reported in each source do notadd up to the total number of persons earning income. The reason is that a person may report more than just one sourceof income. For instance, in 1999, the 19,090 persons reported a total of 27,488 sources of income, thereby yielding anaverage of 1.4 sources per person. In comparison, the 1993 data reveal that the 9,283 persons reported a total of 11,748sources, or 1.3 sources per person. In effect, persons earning income in Chuuk have become more dependent on justone source of income.Table 11.11: Median Income in U.S. Dollars ($) by Source and Region, Chuuk State: 1994 and 20001994 2000Source of income Total N.Namon S.Namon. Faichuk Mortlocks Oksoritod N.Namon S.Namon Faichuk Mortlocks OksoritodPersons earning income 9,283 3,593 2,094 2,073 914 609 19,090 6,053 4,712 4,323 2,714 1,288Median total income $987 $2,663 $750 $692 $794 $832 $785 $981 $793 $714 $647 $657Wages and salary 5,457 2,863 887 635 643 429 4,872 2,296 850 625 714 387Median $2,495 $3,212 $1,534 $2,304 $786 $886 $3,446 $3,433 $3,983 $3,609 $955 $4,587Profit from business or farm 642 273 136 102 64 67 3,412 683 839 1,459 294 137Median $730 $750 $716 $836 $628 $657 $678 $752 $602 $747 $518 $653Interest, dividends, trusts, royalty 297 100 94 40 30 33 252 141 34 45 22 10Median $604 $715 $581 $541 $577 $516 $650 $685 $549 $625 $786 $501Social security, pension, retirement 745 302 160 141 94 48 935 377 235 177 120 26Median $828 $950 $762 $720 $855 $728 $1,552 $1,572 $1,754 $1,014 $2,030 $685Remittances from within FSM 2,800 462 889 1,150 151 148 11,647 3,468 3,100 2,596 1,678 805Median $537 $579 $534 $514 $651 $529 $527 $540 $528 $518 $525 $507Remittances from outside FSM 1,546 137 472 793 110 34 5,122 1,330 1,842 1,462 426 62Median $553 $721 $542 $525 $679 $532 $554 $613 $535 $526 $581 $501Others 261 119 53 46 12 31 1,248 362 756 116 13 1Median $580 $573 $577 $548 $546 $705 $740 $654 $788 $784 $591 $501Source: 1994 & 2000 FSM Censuses, unpublished dataTable 11.12 describes the proportion of persons earning income in each region, by source of income. First, in the caseof Northern Namoneas, 52.5 percent of all persons earning income in 1993 identified wages and salary as their primarysource of income, followed by profit from business or farm (42.5 percent) and social security, pension and retirement(40.5 percent). No other region had parallel dependence on wages and salary, profit from business or farm, and socialsecurity, pension and retirement. By 1999, in Northern Namoneas, the primary sources of income changedsignificantly: interest, dividends, trusts, royalty (56.0 percent), followed by wages and salary (47.1 percent) and socialsecurity, pension and retirement (40.3 percent).Second, a major change occurred between 1993 and 1999 – growing dependence on remittances from within FSM andremittances from outside FSM. In 1993, the two sources were 16.5 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively, changing in1999 to 29.8percent and 26.0 percent, respectively.Two other regions exhibited unusual responses. For one thing, in Southern Namoneas, in 1999, 60.6 percent of allpersons earning income depended on the “others” source of income. By definition, “others” refers to income fromVeterans’ (VA) payments, unemployment compensation, child support, alimony, or any other regular sources ofincome. Given the absence of most of these “others” kinds of sources, Southern Namoneas respondents might haveinadvertently considered “any other regular sources of income” as a primary-source proxy of the other six categories.Also, in Faichuk, in 1993, the two highest sources were remittances from outside FSM (51.3 percent) and remittancesfrom within FSM (41.1 percent). No other region recorded such high proportions. All the same, by 1999, the twopercentages dropped to 28.5 percent and 22.3 percent, respectively, and were replaced by profit from business or farm(42.8 percent) as the primary source of income.108 Chuuk Branch Statistics Office, Division of Statistics, FSM Department of Economic Affairs