Western Montana has close ties with the States lying to the west and has 

 been integrated as part of the Pacific Northwest. 



In terms of the social structure of the study area, Indians exert their 

 greatest influence in the Flathead subarea. Other non-Caucasian groups 

 account for less than 1 percent in all subareas of the study area. 



Property tax is the principal source of local governmental funding. 

 Counties, municipalities, and school districts depend almost entirely 

 upon this tax. There is no general sales tax for support of county or 

 city government, although State government derives some revenues from 

 selective sales taxes. Individual income and corporate taxes also 

 support State government. 



Total employment trends have generally paralleled population trends since 

 the employment participation rate (employment/population) for the study 

 area has been approximately the same over time. Employment in the study 

 area totaled 69,322 in 1970, according to the Decennial Census. Since 

 19A0, total employment for the study area has expanded at an average 

 annual rate of 0.7 percent. Unemployment in 1970 was 8 percent, somewhat 

 higher than the National average of 6.7 percent that year. 



Measured in current dollars, personal income in the Clark Fork study area 

 totaled $628 million in 1970. Wages and salaries comprised nearly 84 

 percent of total earnings. 



Per capita income in 1970 was about 10 percent below the State and 

 considerably below the National income per capita. Mean family income 

 for the study area in the base period was $9,454. Ten percent of the 

 total number of families had incomes below the poverty threshhold estab- 

 lished by the Federal Interagency Committee on Poverty. 



A large number of forces influence economic activity and long-term eco- 

 nomic growth. None of these forces can be considered as fixed. Further- 

 more, these forces vary in their relative influence over time. Changing 

 incomes, shifting tastes, development of substitute products, and 

 changing prices tend to modify trends. Substitute products cause changes 

 in use patterns. The expansion of world markets affects the agricultural 

 industry of the United States and its various regions. 



The OBERS series C projections were selected as a baseline projection for 

 the study area. 2/ These projections are not predictions of the future 

 but, rather, they are approximations of what may occur if a specific set 



2/ The term OBERS was adopted to represent a joint effort by the 



former Office of Business Economics, U.S. Department of Commerce, and the 

 former Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 



Although OBE has become the BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis), and ERS 



has become ESCS (Economic, Statistics, and Cooperative Service), the 

 OBERS designation has been continued. 



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