Berks Vital Signs

How is our region doing?

Local governments in Berks County spent $1,138 per resident in 2017, up 17% from 2000, but down from $1,569 in 2008.

Local government spending across Pennsylvania was higher than Berks, at $1,583 per resident in 2017, an increase of 15% from 2000. Among neighboring counties, Lehigh ($1,270) and Montgomery ($1,304) counties had more spending per capita than Berks in 2017. Chester, Lancaster, Lebanon, and Schuylkill counties all had lower spending per resident than Berks. The City of Reading, at $1,846 per resident, had significantly higher local government spending than the county-wide figure in Berks County.

Spending of Local Governments

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
Pennsylvania	$1,382	$1,363	$1,475	$1,473	$1,477	$1,497	$2,109	$1,520	$2,603	$1,631	$1,848	$1,705	$1,695	$1,664	$1,652	$1,588	$1,591	$1,583
Berks County	$971	$966	$1,068	$1,099	$1,106	$1,172	$1,396	$1,297	$1,569	$1,351	$1,191	$1,176	$1,239	$1,129	$1,213	$1,297	$1,138	$1,138
Berks County Regions
Central	$1,249	$1,318	$1,414	$1,476	$1,475	$1,649	$2,142	$1,554	$2,301	$1,927	$1,725	$1,872	$1,892	$1,715	$2,098	$2,275	$1,658	$1,670
Northeast	$713	$735	$790	$919	$743	$821	$950	$911	$963	$875	$700	$736	$694	$743	$713	$716	$741	$720
South	$1,089	$992	$1,344	$1,273	$1,169	$1,331	$1,307	$1,921	$1,547	$1,557	$1,419	$1,135	$1,412	$1,165	$1,081	$1,210	$1,296	$1,181
Southeast	$881	$951	$770	$875	$1,341	$913	$952	$862	$1,104	$1,070	$808	$879	$702	$829	$815	$796	$786	$915
West	$585	$509	$536	$515	$529	$632	$756	$658	$744	$710	$597	$573	$732	$648	$634	$615	$597	$684
Reading city	$1,429	$1,525	$1,650	$1,650	$1,673	$1,933	$2,582	$1,809	$2,702	$2,200	$2,007	$2,239	$2,138	$2,010	$2,502	$2,718	$1,948	$1,846
Berks County Peers
Chester County	$898	$840	$1,019	$975	$1,120	$1,134	$1,089	$1,208	$1,262	$1,147	$912	$867	$1,036	$943	$971	$996	$1,052	$1,037
Lancaster County	$793	$654	$840	$861	$773	$819	$1,601	$971	$464	$1,192	$1,780	$1,256	$1,654	$722	$1,765	$940	$1,212	$972
Lebanon County	$615	$443	$460	$540	$529	$557	$869	$634	$708	$730	$489	$595	$928	$970	$580	$678	$685	$631
Lehigh County	$1,269	$1,203	$1,120	$1,151	$1,172	$1,117	$1,322	$1,255	$1,612	$1,334	$407	$1,056	$1,503	$823	$1,412	$1,267	$1,186	$1,270
Montgomery County	$1,215	$1,094	$1,152	$1,123	$1,194	$1,229	$1,224	$1,298	$1,411	$1,330	$1,222	$1,262	$1,220	$1,203	$1,234	$1,353	$1,329	$1,304
Schuylkill County	$685	$670	$626	$649	$661	$672	$789	$729	$700	$734	$886	$759	$700	$740	$694	$821	$756	$727

Source: Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development
Notes: Figures are in constant 2016 dollars.

Total Spending of Local Governments

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
Pennsylvania	$16,010,418,863	$16,250,020,073	$17,642,530,398	$18,001,079,779	$17,897,096,356	$18,077,713,615	$13,245,779,022	$18,581,640,461	$14,746,977,444	$20,463,829,518	$15,814,547,429	$15,655,959,885	$16,702,089,818	$17,328,371,394	$17,934,940,815	$19,913,935,608	$19,956,432,483	$19,819,856,277
Berks County	$326,479,817	$353,504,280	$396,248,889	$407,766,210	$410,487,531	$434,872,190	$466,414,775	$471,444,542	$455,475,810	$491,184,644	$481,516,945	$471,555,504	$509,850,126	$461,067,123	$499,243,023	$531,285,430	$468,285,562	$468,163,655
Berks County Regions
Central	$129,563,520	$143,350,590	$153,748,037	$160,555,613	$160,447,363	$179,344,252	$232,937,143	$169,055,682	$241,642,021	$209,625,438	$205,653,680	$223,103,370	$225,555,602	$199,051,725	$250,074,491	$271,144,935	$197,693,090	$199,075,410
Northeast	$36,740,840	$43,716,688	$47,023,125	$54,720,039	$44,239,757	$48,883,211	$44,211,898	$54,224,807	$45,189,909	$52,058,487	$45,305,274	$47,590,221	$44,863,028	$48,054,502	$46,121,207	$46,293,989	$47,918,188	$46,550,707
South	$88,453,788	$92,456,877	$125,243,381	$118,602,853	$108,962,484	$124,033,805	$108,522,139	$167,408,564	$105,408,692	$135,709,946	$151,235,277	$124,366,384	$154,727,658	$127,732,895	$118,504,302	$132,573,537	$142,041,854	$129,400,102
Southeast	$37,428,717	$41,900,560	$36,616,611	$41,582,559	$63,722,601	$43,410,636	$40,428,161	$40,951,246	$33,711,106	$50,862,352	$43,642,631	$42,997,350	$37,938,242	$44,792,514	$44,023,395	$42,998,151	$42,450,256	$49,430,221
West	$31,071,309	$28,676,975	$32,428,266	$31,155,460	$32,005,428	$38,218,167	$40,315,434	$39,804,243	$29,524,083	$42,928,420	$35,680,084	$33,498,179	$46,765,595	$41,435,488	$40,519,629	$38,274,817	$38,182,174	$43,707,215
Reading city	$111,982,565	$123,859,502	$133,993,871	$134,020,679	$135,870,460	$156,950,673	$209,635,974	$146,907,044	$219,384,412	$178,616,996	$176,742,708	$197,185,820	$188,351,446	$177,083,426	$220,400,701	$239,371,707	$171,600,837	$162,592,941
Berks County Peers
Chester County	$337,042,032	$335,335,903	$441,644,133	$422,869,524	$477,071,440	$491,491,716	$269,940,495	$523,688,754	$108,086,245	$491,505,217	$429,520,814	$237,062,569	$502,567,772	$469,601,263	$484,637,566	$495,661,515	$523,598,436	$517,515,080
Lancaster County	$335,328,439	$267,055,570	$386,840,287	$405,271,685	$363,831,980	$385,342,924	$196,380,956	$457,039,441	$13,010,209	$560,985,915	$59,001,367	$61,419,584	$157,729,966	$61,445,529	$271,816,640	$488,381,094	$628,094,914	$503,890,323
Lebanon County	$69,934,911	$42,436,251	$44,057,953	$64,905,110	$63,682,934	$67,010,850	$2,755,019	$76,236,194	$3,199,207	$87,763,702	$6,567,597	$6,943,893	$38,647,866	$34,818,582	$33,707,624	$90,548,971	$91,523,780	$84,301,478
Lehigh County	$324,096,951	$352,610,118	$328,082,251	$337,416,783	$343,564,994	$327,221,564	$44,754,755	$367,809,856	$191,137,205	$397,980,396	$884,348	$24,247,362	$223,450,143	$72,121,679	$243,926,396	$394,135,288	$368,890,784	$394,932,303
Montgomery County	$772,310,169	$823,089,181	$846,049,839	$827,104,681	$876,928,346	$910,563,867	$233,046,286	$976,479,289	$490,479,953	$1,000,479,079	$809,018,961	$1,007,374,090	$977,142,651	$942,639,995	$989,684,541	$1,085,579,760	$1,066,341,059	$1,046,130,182
Schuylkill County	$95,491,893	$96,566,296	$92,054,795	$97,018,667	$98,717,418	$99,447,932	$50,928,524	$109,497,520	$58,340,894	$110,269,935	$109,875,217	$105,781,835	$101,844,867	$108,989,486	$101,431,559	$111,858,277	$100,900,614	$98,707,071

Source: Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development
Notes: Figures are in constant 2016 dollars.

INDICATORS	TREND \| BERKS COUNTY
Early Prenatal Care	Increasing
Early Prenatal Care by Mother's Race/Ethnicity	Not Applicable
Children Living in Poverty	Increasing
Children Living in Poverty, by Race/Ethnicity	Not Applicable
Single-Parent Families	Increasing
Single-Parent Families by Race/Ethnicity	Not Applicable
Disengaged Youth	Decreasing
Live Births to Teen Mothers	Decreasing
Change in Population by Age and Gender	Not Applicable
Change in Total Population by Race/Ethnicity	Not Applicable
Population by Age and Race/Ethnicity	Not Applicable
Foreign-Born Population	Increasing
Language Diversity	Increasing
Unemployment Rate	Decreasing
Change in Labor Force	Increasing
Employment to Population ratio	Increasing
Change in Jobs by Sector	Not Applicable
Sector Share of Total Jobs	Not Applicable
Average Salary by Sector	Not Applicable
Change in Average Salary by Sector	Not Applicable
People Entering/Leaving County/Region for Work	Not Applicable
Public Assistance	Maintaining
Spending for Local Governments	Maintaining
Spending for Counties	Maintaining
Spending for School Districts	Maintaining
Quality Early Childhood Centers	Increasing
Prekindergarten Participation	Increasing
Students Eligible for Free/Reduced Price Lunch	Increasing
English Language Learners	Increasing
Students Receiving Special Education Services	Increasing
Per Student Spending	Maintaining
Historically Underperforming Student Performance on Grade 3 English	Not Applicable
Historically Underperforming Student Performance on Grade 3 Math	Not Applicable
Historically Underperforming Student Performance on Grade 8 English	Not Applicable
Historically Underperforming Student Performance on Grade 8 Math	Not Applicable
Student Performance on High School English	Decreasing
Student Performance on High School Math	Maintaining
High School Cohort Graduation Rate	Increasing
Education Levels of Adults, by Race/Ethnicity	Not Applicable
Brain Drain/Gain	Increasing
Plans of High School Graduates	Not Applicable
Median Household Income	Maintaining
Median Household Income by Household Type	Not Applicable
Living Wage	Not Applicable
People Living in Poverty	Increasing
Working Poor	Maintaining
People Receiving Federal Food Assistance	Increasing
Health Status	Not Applicable
People Enrolled in Medicaid Managed Care	Increasing
People Without Health Insurance	Decreasing
Physically Inactive Adults	Not Applicable
Adults Who are Overweight or Obese	Not Applicable
Students in 7-12 Overweight or Obese	Not Applicable
Students in K-6 Overweight or Obese	Not Applicable
Vacant Housing Units	Increasing
Homeownership Rates	Decreasing
Housing Affordability for Homeowners	Maintaining
Housing Affordability for Homeowners by Race/Ethnicity	Not Applicable
Housing Affordability for Renters	Increasing
Housing Affordability for Renters, by Race/Ethnicity	Not Applicable
Age of Housing Stock	Not Applicable
Single-Family Home Sales	Increasing
Median Single-Family Home Sale Price	Maintaining
Tourism Spending	Maintaining
Voter Registration Rate	Decreasing
Voter Participation Rate	Decreasing
Average Charitable Giving	Maintaining
Contributions as a Percentage of Income	Maintaining
Households With Internet Access	Not Applicable
Dams	Not Applicable
Violent Crimes	Maintaining
Property Crimes	Decreasing
Incarceration Rates	Maintaining
Drug Abuse Offenses	Increasing
Drug Abuse Arrests	Increasing
Protection from Domestic Abuse	Maintaining
Means of Transportation to Work	Not Applicable
Average Travel Time to Work	Increasing
Crashes Involving Alcohol	Decreasing
Households Without Vehicles	Decreasing

INDICATORS

TREND | BERKS COUNTY