Utahns have seen their personal incomes dip, but the slide hasn’t been as great, on average, as that experienced by people nationally, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Personal income in Utah fell 1 percent in 2009, the latest figures available — and 1.1 percent in Salt Lake County — from the previous year. Nationally, the average slide was 1.7 percent.

Utah County, which saw a decline of 1.1 percent, slipped to 27th among counties in the state — down from 14th a decade earlier. Experts say large numbers of children in Utah’s second-most-populous county, as well as the soft economy, help explain the statistical decline.

Don LaVange, 55, of Pleasant Grove, has felt the decline firsthand, but he was almost relieved when he was laid off from his job in the software industry. With company cutbacks and downsizing, LaVange had been working 15-hour days. He returned to school and now works as an administrative assistant. His wife works, and two of their four daughters are living at home.

"I have a job, my wife has a job, and we both have benefits, so this differentiates us from a lot of people who are struggling," he said. "But with budget cuts, we, like many other people, won’t be seeing raises or cost-of-living increases. There doesn’t seem to be room for that to change in this particular economy. It’s clear that, right now, people are lucky if they have a job."

Statewide, personal incomes are lower than the national average, except for those in Summit County.

In Salt Lake County, for instance, 2009 per-capita personal income was $37,276, the second-highest number in the state, but 94 percent of the national average of $39,635.

Jim Wood, director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research, said the personal-income figures reflect all income, including Social Security, retirement benefits, rental income, interest payments and wages.

Personal incomes generally are lower in Utah because of the large numbers of "nonwage earners," or children, said Effie Johnson, research analyst with the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget. Utahns under age 18 make up 31.5 percent of the state’s population, the largest percentage in the nation, which, in turn, pulls down incomes.

"The good news is that Utah is doing well, in terms of the smaller slide in personal income," Johnson said. "It shows that we’ve tended to weather the economic storm a little bit better than the country as a whole."

Nationwide, income growth slowed in all but one of the largest counties with populations of more than 250,000. The change ranged from an 8.1 percent decline in Oakland County, Mich., to a 4.2 percent gain in Loudoun County, Va.

In other results from the report, Utah’s gross domestic product, the market value of all goods and services, topped $112.7 billion in 2009 and ranked No. 33 in the United States.

The largest industry in Utah was government services, accounting for 14.1 percent of the state’s GDP, posting growth of 2.5 percent. The second-largest industry was real estate, rental and leasing, accounting for 12.5 percent of the state’s GDP and suffering a decline of 2 percent.

dawn@sltrib.com