What is economic life like in a small rural Utah town?
A survey of the community of Mount Pleasant, conducted by Howard B. Christensen of Brigham Young University's department of statistics with the assistance of the Youth City Council, provides some insights.The group sampled 263 households, ranging in size from one person to seven or more.
The average income per household fell in the $22,053-to-$27,393 bracket.
About 70 percent of those surveyed have full- or part-time employment. Fifteen percent hold down more than one job. Twenty-seven percent are retired and living primarily on Social Security and pensions.
In fact, Social Security and pensions are the largest single income source, 32.3 percent, followed by skilled trades, 17.29 percent; other, 14.66 percent; and mining, 9.7 percent.
A third of the households had no secondary source of income. Men are still the primary providers, but in 26 percent of the households, women are the principal source of income.
Small households, those containing one to three people, often retired, reported the smallest average income. The largest households, those with seven or more people, often with more than one income provider, had the largest household incomes.
"Poor?" One of the students who helped with the survey was asked. "Poor is a matter of definition," she responded. "Maybe poor in the economic sense, but apparently happy with their way of life."