Recently, the Citrus County Economic Development Council (EDC) engaged the services of POLICOM Corporation, a nationally known economic analysis firm, to provide a study of Citrus county's past, present and future economic data.

The survey compares Citrus County to the 318 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) throughout the nation, the U.S. national average and the Florida statewide average. The sources of the data are federal income tax returns and data gathered by the Bureau of Economic Analysis within the U.S. Department of commerce. These are the most reliable and up-to-date sources available today.

To say some of the findings were a surprise is putting it mildly.

The overall earning of an area are divided into several different categories such as manufacturing, services, retail, construction, wholesale, state and federal government, etc. Trends in these various categories and the level of income from these categories paint a very accurate picture of the makeup of a local economy.

The overall services category was by far the largest income sector in Citrus County at $328,776,000 which is more than double the next category of transportation, communications and public utilities at $153,464,000. No surprise here until you see the underlying data. Of the total services earnings, $160,607,000 is health services. The next closest is business services at $58,189,000. This tells us citrus county is heavily dependent on retiree-related services and products.

Further supporting this finding is the makeup of total local earnings by individuals. Typical communities have transfer income (transfer income includes: social security, Medicare, Medicaid, family assistance, dividends and interest) somewhere in the 10-20% range with the national average around 12 percent to 13 percent. In Citrus County, the total transfer income is 72.3 percent of the earnings. This further indicates a heavy dependence on a retirement-based economy.

When further analyzing the spending patterns within a local economy heavily dependent upon retirement, one normally finds high spending patterns in local eating and drinking establishments. Here, we find the highest level in local food stores, indicating a lower income among local retirees. This indicates a lower level of average income compared to other retirement communities.

These and other findings of the POLICOM research will be provided at the EDC's Economic Summit from 7:30 a.m. until 9:15 a.m. on June 17 at the Plantation Inn. Contact Lisa Dwyer at 795-2000 to make your reservation. Seating is limited, so please reserve early.

Brett Wattles is the executive director of the Economic Development Council. Contact the EDC at 795-2000.